


Eighteenth Birthday

by catisacat



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/F, M/M, canon-typical child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 09:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5451608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catisacat/pseuds/catisacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everybody needs a friend but Angel needs one more than most people.</p><p>Thankfully her new neighbor, Gaige, is the perfect fit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Girl in the Window

**Author's Note:**

> Quasi-Modern setting. I realized after I wrote this that Gaige's dad mentions her mother in one of the ECHOlogs but I wanted their family set-ups to be more parallel to each other.
> 
> I'd like to have more characters show up as teachers/coworkers/neighbors/ect. but I'm not sure who or in what capacity. I do think I'll at least make "The Firehawks" be some sort of sports team Gaige is on, run by Lilith.

Gaige had already spent an embarrassingly long and possibly creepy amount of time staring at the girl next door.

When the moving van had first shown up Gaige had been outside, wheeling her mountain bike back into the garage after a long ride.

That was when she’d first laid eyes on her new neighbor.

As far as she could tell then the girl’s family situation was like hers, just her and her dad. She’d seen the girl’s father though and he… well he was usually smiling and he wasn’t ugly or anything but something about him just seemed incredibly sinister.

When the pale, thin girl first hopped out of the obscenely nice car their eyes had met immediately. She was delicately beautiful, like she'd fall apart if you touched her. Gaige’d waved excitedly and the girl had started to raise her hand to wave back. However, the girl was swept into the house by her father before Gaige could walk over.

Since then the girl had just stayed up there, in her room, staring out at the world. She always looked a little bit sad.

Gaige couldn’t wait to meet her.

The girl’s house was definitely in the same school district as hers so she could meet the girl at school. It was starting up in a week but she didn’t want to wait even that long. Gaige was far from shy but had no idea how to approach this girl otherwise.

She hadn’t seen the other girl leave the expansive house since they arrived though. Their wide bedroom windows faced each other and the girl often sat by hers and looked out at the city. Gaige hadn’t been previously interested in staring outside but had taken to leaving her own curtains drawn since she moved in. Unfortunately, the girl never looked straight out at Gaige’s window.

However, once school started it immediately became obvious that the girl was homeschooled.

The first day Gaige had spent as much time as she could combing the campus looking for her. She even found herself asking other students if they’d seen a thin, pale girl with freckles and black hair. No one had.

Her father had asked her what was wrong when she’d wandered back in off the bus, sadly dragging her backpack.

Her face had gone bright red but she could never keep anything away from her father, “It’s… okay so you know the girl next door?”

“The one in the window?” he asked, pointing towards the girl’s house.

Gaige nodded, “I just… I wanted to meet her today. She always looks like, super duper sad and junk. And it would be, like, the COOLEST if I lived right next door to a friend. Maybe even a best friend!”

Her father thought she was getting way ahead of herself but understood, “I think she’s homeschooled, sweetheart. I saw her earlier with her dad and a big pile of books. If you want to befriend her… well there's always the good old fashioned way. It's only a short walk to her front door.”

Gaige groaned theatrically as she banged her hands on the table, “Uuuuuuugh you don't get it, dad. People don't DO things like that anymore!”

He patted her metal hand, “Don't worry, If you're meant to be friends, you'll become friends.”

She wasn't comforted by that, really, but gave her dad a big hug before heading upstairs anyways.

It would be way too awkward to just walk up and ring the doorbell. Plus she had a very, very strong hunch that it wouldn't be the girl opening the door. She'd seen the dad several times since and frankly, had already grown to dislike him. High ranking corporate stooge.

Whenever she saw him she felt like she was observing a wolf hunting its prey. She didn't want to be the one in his sights, ever. She’d never seen him up close and didn’t terribly want to. Part of her was curious though, there was something weird about his face. She'd never been close enough to tell but it almost looked like there were hinges on it but that didn't make any sense.

Either way. She didn’t want to knock on his door and find out.

She sadly pushed open her door and looked out her window. As expected the girl was sitting there and looking out at the quickly waning sunset. She was curled up resting her head on her arms. Her eyes were half-lidded and she looked sadder than ever.

Gaige just stood in the doorway looking at her.

If she'd just… look over.

The gears in Gaige’s head jolted to life and started churning as she lunged at her desk, quickly digging through the drawers. She was going to befriend this girl, damn it.

She pulled some failed blueprints out of her drawer and started scribbling frantically.

\- - -

Angel has never had a friend.

At first it was due to her own social failings but after her Siren powers manifested and what she’d accidentally done to her mom…

Well, her dad had all but seen to it personally that she didn't make any after that.

She had begged for him to let her to public school or even private school so she could be around other teenagers. As expected, it fell on delusional ears and was ignored. She’s tried every year and really didn’t expect it to change just because they were moving to a new neighborhood.

They’d only ever lived in the city before this but due to a series of violent falling-outs with connected apartments her father had decided to get a house.

Of course, there were neighbors still, but they weren’t touching their home and he couldn’t hear them so he considered it a win-win. She could hear some things though. Banging and the sound of electricity crackling in the air. The other girl’s joyous laughter. The kind father bringing her a special dinner. The sound of a normal family.

She’s been watching them a lot. Probably also a possibly creepy amount but she’d never been able to see a normal family up close like this. She found herself staring out at them like a child gawking at zoo animals. She knew it was impolite but she couldn’t stop herself.

The girl looked around her age. Bright red hair in explosive pigtails and gigantic green eyes. One of her arms had been replaced with a shiny metal claw. She was loud and bright and happy. Everything Angel isn’t. She fascinated her. Her work desk was in front of the window facing Angel’s own.

Of course, the quiet girl was used to looking nonchalant. She was amazingly good at sensing when the other girl would look out at her so she could divert her eyes back to the skyline.

She knew her dad wouldn’t let her have a friend.

Especially not someone who shone so bright and laughed so loud.

Angel knew the girl was staring at her too. She could feel those massive eyes boring into her skull, practically begging her to look up. The other girl was lonely too.

She couldn’t bring herself to.

She’d felt enough disappointment already in her short life.

But the second she felt the other girl’s eyes tear away from her she’d finally look back. The redhead was usually slumped on her bed by then, staring at the carpet and looking completely dejected.

Angel wondered what could be fascinating enough about herself to make someone who didn’t even know her care so much about getting her attention.

Whatever her reasons Angel always, for a few, cold seconds, contemplated trying to get her attention. It wouldn’t be hard. She could easily just wave her arms over her head for a second and she wouldn’t doubt the girl would see her. Their windows were so close.

She wanted to see the disappointment melt from the other girl’s face so badly.

Angel had watched her leave for school. She’d barely paid attention to her father during her own homeschool classes to his irritation. She was never good at pretending to care and right now learning math was the last thing on her mind.

She knew today that the bright, fiery girl would give up hope of contacting her. She’d probably make some new friends at school and forget about the girl in the window.

Angel was mentally exhausted by the time she watched the girl return home.

She didn’t even bother looking up at all.

She just stayed there, slowly drifting off on her desk.

Just as her eyes were about to close for the night she heard a loud banging coming from the other window. It wasn’t the normal noises of the girl tinkering with some robotic device though.

It was the sound of a metal hand banging on glass.

She knew what she’d see if the looked up.

Angel stayed stock-still, waiting for the noise to stop. If she pretended to be asleep it would all end. She could feel the tears rising in her eyes. This was the other girl’s last resort. If she just stayed still it would be over. Her hope would be gone and she could go back to living her life as a silver bird in a gilded cage.

The noise got more insistent until it stopped abruptly.

Angel tensed up, gripping her own arm painfully tight.

It was over.

The girl had given up.

As Angel started trembling a sharp and sudden “CLUNK” against her window made her jerk upright in surprise.

Her soft blue eyes immediately met the girl’s intense green ones.

The other girl’s window was wide open now and she started bouncing up and down immediately, her pigtails going wild. She held up a finger excitedly.

Angel watched her dump a handful of bolts onto the desk she was currently crouched on.

She immediately knew the girl must have tossed one at the window when banging on her own hadn’t been loud enough.

Angel’s mind was racing in equal parts terror and exhilaration as the girl started shuffling papers. Instinct was telling her to run. Run down stairs. Tell her father she really, really wanted a pizza could they please order one? He’d oblige, he always did if it didn’t involve her leaving the house. Then she’d be trapped down there with him.

He’d play some horrible, violent action movie she’d hate and brag about the atrocities he’d committed but she could just eat herself sick and fall asleep on the couch. She could pretend life was normal and that she hadn’t ever seen the neighbor girl.

But something in Angel’s mind, something powerful and loud, was overwhelming her urge to run.

Hope.

Angel remained still once more but this time she kept her gaze firmly fixed on the girl.

It was like staring at the sun.

But she didn’t look away.

\- - -

It felt like an hour to Angel but it was mere seconds to Gaige.

In no time she’d located the correct paper and held it up to the window victoriously.

Gaige felt her heart beat accelerate as the girl read the sign.

All uppercase in her scratchy, scribbly, energetic writing were the words ‘HI, I’M GAIGE.’

It was framed by lively and wild doodles. Hearts and stars and little explosions.

Maybe she’d gone a little overboard but she was excited and hadn’t felt so alive in a long, long time. Her summer has been empty, long days spent tinkering alone in her room.

But this? This was like something out of a movie.

She urgently wished on an errant shooting star that was soaring across the night sky that it would end like one too.

\- - -

Gaige. Her name was Gaige.

Angel remained frozen for a while but her new friend didn’t seem to mind.

She felt her hands shake as she slowly reached for the whiteboard her dad used when he held her classes.

She felt danger and thrill coursing through her veins as she wiped away the equations and deftly popped off the marker’s top.

She calmed her shaking hand long enough to write her message in gorgeous, looping cursive.

Angel carefully propped the board up on her own desk, facing out towards the other girl’s window.

\- - -

Angel. Of course her name was Angel. She looked like one.

Gaige smiled at her before she started flipping through her papers again to find a blank one.

As she manically started scribbling another message she kept getting distracted. Looking up at the other girl every few seconds as if she was afraid she’d disappear.

Angel didn’t vanish though, she just stayed there. Quiet and patient, waiting for Gaige to finish her second message. Her blue eyes were electric in the dark, lit only by the small desk lamp next to her.

A warm feeling spread in Gaige’s chest as she realized this was the first time she’d ever seen the other girl smile.


	2. Mirrored in Loneliness

The two had conversed most of the night, both far too excited to leave their window.

Gaige knew she'd be falling asleep in class tomorrow but she couldn't bring herself to care. Right now all she cared about was getting to know as much about Angel as she could. Plus the shy girl was so impressed by her own feats… well who can blame Gaige for a little bragging?

Gaige learned of Angel’s sad life thus far, although Angel left the part about her Siren powers hidden. She figured that was a story for another day.

Even though Gaige had just met the girl today but she already was ready to fight her dad. Well. Mentally ready. From what Angel was telling her she would probably just end up another one of his strangled casualties. So not physically ready.

Angel quickly found herself jealous of Gaige's life but was weirdly happy she was a part of it. Even in as limited of a capacity as being her neighbor. Friend? Well, maybe not yet but they were certainly on the path to it.

As the sun started to rise, their conversation was cut short when the sound of Angel’s bedroom door unlocking sent her into a panic. She immediately shushed Gaige and gestured emphatically for her to hide.

The redhead reacted immediately, swinging shut her window and bashing her head painfully on the desk as she tried to duck under it.

As she curled up under there she felt something drip onto her arm.

Bright red was quickly starting to cover her face as she swore and carefully dragged her tissue box under the desk. She hoped that wasn’t noticeable from the other house but her head was bleeding pretty bad from the gash on her forehead.

Her dad was totally gonna freak. Er, maybe not. He was pretty used to this kind of thing.

\- - -

In the other house Angel swung her window shut and curled up at her desk expertly as the door to her room opened.

She had carefully slowed her breath and for all intensive purposes she appeared to be out cold. She’d even had the foresight to wipe clean the whiteboard and spread some half completed homework out underneath her pseudo-sleeping form.

She should have gotten an Oscar for her acting as her father grabbed her shoulder and shook her awake, “Angel?”

She carefully opened her eyes, blinking up in faux confusion at him, “Mmm?”

“Baby, you fell asleep at your desk,” Jack said, still holding onto her shoulder with a smile, “I thought you were still up but I should have known my little girl wouldn’t break the rules.”

She felt disgust in the pit of her stomach. Most girls would strive for their parent’s approval but for Angel it was just revolting. She just shook her head, pushing herself upright in the comfy office chair. For added ‘good girl’ effect she started to clean up the scattered homework.

Her father grabbed her wrists. She all but physically restrained herself from pulling away, as much as her instincts were screaming at her too.

“Come on, I’ll tuck you in,” he said. She allowed him to slide one arm under her knees and one behind her shoulders as he effortlessly hoisted her off the chair, princess style. She supposed it would look like a sweet gesture from someone outside looking in. However, for her it was just a dark reminder of how strong he is and how easy it is for him to kill people with his bare hands.

She let him place her on the bed and tightly tuck her in as if she was a child. She supposed in his eyes she was and half expected him to pull out a storybook. What he did do was nearly as infantilizing, grabbing a nonspecific stuffed animal from the side of her bed and handing it to her.

Angel wrapped her arms around it with genuine affection though. It was a stuffed kitty with a little halo and wings, a birthday gift from one of her father’s underlings. Rhys. He was one of the few who actually ever got to see her. There were some, mostly used by Jack as babysitters. An even more select few were even allowed to take her outside the house and Rhys was one of them. Of the Hyperions her dad would occasionally foist on her, he was her favorite. She regarded him almost like a big brother.

She made a point not to show that to her father though. The last thing she wanted was for him to know that someone, anyone, held more of her affection than him. She didn’t want to stop seeing Rhys or worse, and more realistic, have her father hurt or kill him.

So, unfortunately, it was pretty random who she got stuck with.

The worst was always when she got stuck with that smarmy one who was trying too hard to get close on her good side. She could never remember his first name because Rhys only ever referred to him as “Assquez.” Never around her dad, of course. He had the whole thing about swearing.

But Rhys would whisper it to her and they’d giggle about it.

She knew that Vasquez’s behavior had nothing to do with her. He didn’t care about her. He cared about getting her father’s approval. Hell, he seemed jealous that he cared so much about her.

He made her appreciate Rhys more. He actually cared.

Jack crept back out of the room, turning off the light and leaving Angel in her bed with her stuffed cat.

She heard him lock the door behind him.

She laid still for a second before carefully pushing herself up on her elbow to look out the window. To see if she could see Gaige one last time before she went to sleep.

\- - -

A minute or so after Angel started looking out her window Gaige popped up from behind the desk. She noticed that Angel was staring at her from her bed in the now darkened room.

She looked calm now which the fiery girl was grateful for. Whatever had gone down it had gone down in her new friend’s favor. Gaige felt a misplaced pang of guilt when thinking about how poorly it could have gone if Angel’s father had seen her.

However, Angel tensed back up seeing exactly how much blood was on her friend’s face. They’d only known each other for a few hours but her father had already hurt her new friend.

Gaige waved her hands at her when she realized this was freaking out the pale girl.

She’d cut her own arm off, this was nothing compared to that.

Angel was still tense as Gaige nonverbally comforted her. She felt better when the mechanic finally pointed towards downstairs and left to get her own father to bandage her up.

She wasn't completely content until she watched her friend’s father escort her back upstairs.

It was like looking into a mirror. A father and his daughter. Except she was the one on the wrong side of the glass.

\- - -

Gaige’s dad wished he could act surprised when she came bopping down the stairs at around five A.M. with blood streaming from her head. She was equally nonchalant about it as he sighed affectionately and grabbed their first aid kit.

He was surprised however, at what she said next.

“I met her,” she said with a wide smile despite the fact he was cleaning her wounds.

He was only confused for half a second before remembering the last thing they’d talked about, “The girl next door?”

“Yeah, yeah, I threw a bolt at her window and she looked up! I had signs ready an’ everything. Can we pick up a blackboard tomorrow? Er… today? Please, please, please?”

His daughter was positively bouncing at the concept before it hit him.

“Gaige, honey, it’s way too late. You should have been asleep hours ago. You have school tomorrow.”

“Oh come onnnn dad, you know I could sleep through all my classes and still fuckin’ ACE them!” she said flexing, despite her twiggy little arms and the nonexistent strength of the non-robotic one having little to nothing to do with her ample intelligence.

He laughed anyways, “You still can get in trouble for falling asleep in class though.”

She stared at the ground in response. She knew tomorrow was going to be hell, hindsight is 20/20, “Auuugh… tomorrow’s gonna suck… or today’s gonna suck… just… auuuugggghhhhhhhhh.”

Her dad just smiled though, tapping her forehead outside the wound area, “Well sweetheart, it looks like you’re not going to be well enough to go to school. Unfortunately.”

Her smile returned, more radiant than ever, as she slammed herself into her dad’s chest, “Oh my godddd, you are the coolest dad in the history of cool dads!!”

He laughed, rubbing her back, “Alright now let’s get you to bed.”

She hopped up the stairs ahead of him until she found herself being tucked in as well. He carefully picked up her favorite stuffed animal from the foot of her bed, a ratty and well-loved bunny she’d had since she was a child. He’d won it for her at a carnival. She hugged it tightly.

Gaige looked over once he departed the room after a kiss on her bandaid.

Her new friends was looking at her, the look on her face was indiscernible but she looked almost like she was in pain.

\- - -

Angel watched in silence as Gaige’s dad tucked her in as well. It wasn’t an empty production like hers had been. Gaige wasn’t acting and her dad wasn’t deluded into thinking this was all normal.

It was real and it made her heart ache.

Eventually after Gaige’s dad left the girl looked over again.

Angel felt a different, less painful, flutter from her heart.

She watched as the redhead tucked a finger under the arm of her bunny and made it wave to Angel. She finally smiled again, carefully grabbing the arm of her kitty and waving back.

Both girls were hurt in different ways but both of them didn’t regret a single moment of that night.


	3. Smushing the System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gauge convinces Angel to let her come over although they have to take alternative means to achieve this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First background ship revealed!
> 
> I'm slowly feeling out how I want everyone else to appear in this AU now. I'd like to have nearly every character get at least referenced to, even if it's just a line or two here and there.

Gaige had set her alarm to prevent sleeping in but managed to nonetheless. She bounced awake at 11AM, slammed her clock after it’s millionth attempt to rouse her and rolled out of bed in one swift movement. If one good thing could be said about Gaige, it was her ability to go from zero to wide awake in half a second.

Angel jumped as Gaige suddenly bounced into view. She smiled and waved back enthusiastically, feeling much safer than last night. Her dad wasn't going to be home until late tonight.

Both girls pushed open their windows in sync so they could actually talk.

Angel froze up at Gaige's first question though, “Can I come over?”

Immediately she shook her head, “I'm not allowed to have people over when my dad's gone. Or when he's here. Or really ever.”

“See, you're saying that but all I'm hearing is ‘my dad's not home, come over.’" Gaige said with a mischievous wink.

Angel didn't relent though, “I can't unlock my bedroom door, let alone unlocking the front.”

“Okay sooo I'm just going to ignore that that is like, the biggest fire hazard in the world and point out your window can open.”

Angel just looked confused. They weren't tremendously high up but they were still on the second story. It was only about eight feet between their windows but jumping it would be dangerous at best, bone shattering at worst.

Gaige just lifted a finger like she was going to perform a magic trick as she disappeared through her bedroom door.

Angel remained paralyzed at her desk. Partially from fear, partially from excitement. This mixture of emotions was getting increasingly common to her.

She nearly jumped as Gaige returned with her father in tow. She had to remind herself that most people had dads that truly loved them and wouldn't freak out that they were talking to the neighbor. He had a long length of rope in his hands that he was tying securely to the bottom of the redhead’s bed.

It was the first time Angel had seen Gaige's dad in the light. He had the same glaringly green eyes that were filled with the same manic gleam. His bright auburn hair was long and would have probably been completely unruly had he not tied it back in a ponytail. She caught the glimpse of what looked like an elaborate peace sign tattoo. Angel idly wondered what he did that let him work from home.

Suddenly Gaige popped into view again, holding the other end, “Hold out your hand, I'm gonna throw it!”

Before her brain could process this ridiculous request in this downright ACME-esque scheme she was already catching the rope. She looked down at it then around her room. She supposed her own bed would work.

As she approached it, Gaige's father instructed her on how to tie a knot. He claimed it would be easy to untie.

After a few firm tugs to test its integrity, Gaige's dad patted his daughter on the head and Angel could have sworn she heard him say, “Smash the system, honey.”

It was drowned out by her blind panic as Gaige deftly used the rope to climb in through her window.

Someone was in her room. A friend was in her room. Not her dad. Not his assistants. A friend. Her friend.

Gaige hadn't known what to expect when she finally was in the same room but a crushing hug that smashed her face into Angel's chest was not it.

Not that she was complaining.

In the other house Gaige's dad laughed quietly and shook his head. To be young again. He left so they could have their privacy.

Gaige remained trapped in Angel's arms, surprised by the thin girl's strength.

After a few minutes of silent hugging Angel finally released her grip, holding Gaige at arm's length, “I've… just… been alone so long…”

Gaige supposed it was an apology for suddenly hugging her but her long fingers were still trapping the redhead’s shoulders nonetheless. She just giggled, letting her hands rest surprisingly naturally on Angel's waist, “Oh my god, don't even. It's totally okay.”

Gaige finally looked around the room. It was incredibly clean but filled with books and movies and video games and anything else a teenage girl could have ever wanted. The biggest thing she hadn't noticed from back in her house was the absolutely massive TV tucked against the wall.

“Hoooollllyyyy shit, it's like you live in a movie theatre!” Gaige yelled regarding it carefully. She felt a pang of envy that every game console known to man was plugged into it.

“Do you wanna play?” Angel asked excitedly. She didn't even wait for an answer before she started digging through her games.

Gaige watched as she shoved aside hoards of super violent video games before pulling out a game which appeared to be titled “Super Bunny Hop.” A cutesy anime rabbit smiled out at them flanked by its technicolor friends. Angel was happily tapping where the package said ‘two player co-op.’

Gaige was admittedly more interested in the games her friend had rejected but who could say no to that face?

“Sounds good, I call the blue rabbit though.”

Angel nodded enthusiastically, “Deal! I like the pink one anyways.”

Gaige tried not to stare as her new friend crawled forward and stuck the game in. She was only human though and Angel certainly lived up to her namesake. It was even more obvious now that she was up close.

She expertly averted her gaze when Angel looked back and held out the player two controller to her. It was bright yellow and had a stark, black “H" on it. When Angel settled back next to her Gaige could see that her own was customized too. Baby blue with a pastel green floral pattern on it.

“This one your dad's?” Gaige asked, holding up her own controller, “His name starts with an ‘H' I assume?”

“Well… I guess technically it kind of does start with a ‘H' but I think it just stands for the company he runs. Hyperion,” Angel explained.

“Okay hold up, how does a name technically start with a letter? Isn't it… either it does or it doesn't?”

Angel blushed furiously, fiddling with her controller to start setting up the game, “Uhhh… well I mean his real name is just Jack but he makes people call him… uhm… Handsome Jack.”

Oh my god it's even douchier when you have to explain it.

Gaige was silent for a second before she busted out laughing, “Oh my god, seriously? He actually, non-ironically makes people call him that? You have GOT to be kidding me.”

Angel started giggling behind her hands but shook her head. It was seriously what he had people call him. This only made Gaige laugh harder.

Eventually she managed to stop long enough to speak as a somehow even wider smile quickly cracked across her face, “So if that's your dad's name does that make you ‘Beautiful Angel’?”

Angel looked downright shell shocked by that statement as her pale face started turning bright red.

Gaige wiggled her eyebrows and her new friend looked ready to explode.

“I… you… I-I’m not even…” Angel stuttered out before bapping at Gaige's arm gently. She'd only had someone in a room with her for about ten minutes and they were already calling her beautiful.

Eventually Angel regained enough composure to form a real sentence, “Thank you. I think you're really really pretty too but I uhh, don't think your dad goes by anything weird so I can't… yeah.”

Hey, I didn't say it was an eloquent sentence.

It didn't matter to Gaige though as she tugged Angel into another hug. As she pulled away she noticed something poking out of the top of Angel's oversized hoodie. Not that she'd been looking down it. At least not that much. Just a little bit.

Gaige hooked a mechanical finger into the collar and started tugging it down, “Do you have a tattoo? Holy shit, cool as hell! How'd you convince your hardass dad? Jeez, I can't even convince MINE.”

Angel suddenly jerked away but it only revealed the ones on her arm as well as she raised it to gently push Gaige off. The redhead only giggled and carefully grabbed Angel’s wrist and pushed up her sleeve, exposing her Siren markings.

Angel tensed up. This was it. Ten minutes into hanging out she was going to have to explain her powers. Tell Gaige she's dangerous. The girl would scramble out the window and Angel would be alone again.

Before she could say anything Gaige chirped up, “No way, you're a Siren?!”

Angel was shocked that Gaige even knew what that was, it wasn’t exactly common knowledge. She nodded and Gaige returned to examining her arm.

Angel felt her face go red again as Gaige traced the markings with her finger, “How… how come you know about Sirens?”

Gaige released her arm and pulled out a cell phone covered in little robotic charms. She poked around on it for a second before holding up a picture of two women. No, a picture of two SIRENS. A slightly shorter one with bright red hair and a tall thin one with a blue pixie cut. Both were wearing matching shirts bearing the words “The Firehawks.”

Angel carefully cradled the phone as Gaige talked excitedly, “My baseball coach is a Siren and so is her girlfriend. So I guess I know half the Sirens in the world now. Bitchin’.”

Angel was transfixed by the picture. She'd always assumed she was the only Siren even remotely close to here. Two. She felt her gut clench. She had to meet them. Her dad made such a big deal about learning to control her powers and here were two adult, fully fledged, independent Sirens within reach.

“I’ve never… I’ve never seen another Siren,” Angel said wonderingly.

Gaige just wiggled her eyebrows again, “Welllll, if you can somehow convince your dad we have games every other Saturday. We’ve got one this weekend. You mentioned that sometimes you can leave with supervision? Like, your dad’s assistants?”

“I can try… maybe if I swing it as wanting to play myself... I don’t think he’d let me join a team but maybe he’ll think of it as a way to sate that desire,” Angel said but she didn’t look terribly hopeful.

“Well it’s better than not trying! Plus then maybe you can watch me hit a homerun. I’m good at rounding the bases if you know what I mean,” Gaige said, winking and playfully nudging her friend in the side.

Angel’s face flared up red again as she tugged up her sweater to hide a toothy grin.

She really wasn’t sure if the flirting was just Gaige’s personality or something more genuine or perhaps a mix of both but she liked it. She liked it a lot.

As a diversion she quickly hit ‘start’ on the game as Gaige yelled she wasn’t ready and didn’t know the controls. She picked them up just fine as the girls spent the next few hours piloting their rabbits through the side scrolling game until it was time for Jack to return home.

Gaige tugged the end of the rope back through her window after successfully making it home and looked back up at Angel with one last smile and wink. The pale girl waved back as she heard a car door slam out front.

Well. Time to see if she can somehow convince her father to let her go. At least once.


	4. Homerun for my Homegirl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel manages to convince her dad to let her see a local little league game. Specifically Gaige's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How many other ships of mine can I fit into the background? Absolutely all of them.

Gaige was typically nervous before a game but today the reasons were a little different.

She’d done it. Angel had convinced her dad to let her come to a game.

The redhead was nearly crushing the bat as she stared out towards the parking lot. She barely even reacted as a delicate tattooed hand combed through her ponytail.

She’d alerted both Maya and Lilith to the fact Angel was a Siren too and wanted to meet them. Lilith was off going coach stuff with the other girls but Maya was hovering around her. She was already sympathetic towards this ‘Angel’ girl. Her situation reminded her of her own time in the abbey. And, god, she hated the abbey.

Gaige wasn’t good at waiting and was looking nearly ready to explode. Maya sat next to her to wait. She knew the dad was messed up and honestly didn’t want to leave her young charge alone in case HE was the one to show up.

Angel had told her not to get too excited but it was impossible not to.

Gaige had considered it a victory but Angel acknowledged they were only halfway there.

The pale girl didn’t know which of her father’s numerous assistants was going to be taking her. Some would be just as bad as not going. She’d told the redhead which would be good and which would be bad.

Tall and thin with a robotic arm and eye? Good, ideal situation. Probably be accompanied by a very short man with glasses. Thick black hair and beard, probably wearing a suit despite the destination? Bad situation, can’t even talk to me. Robotic arm and eye but muscly instead of skinny? You can maybe say hi but still pretend you don’t know me.

Weirdly, Angel also told her that if she appeared to be accompanied by her “dad” that it was “okay” and that she could “explain it better if he was there.” Gaige was really confused by that one.

Oh and on the excessively rare chance it is a tall, thin woman wearing a cowboy hat? Don’t talk me, don’t look at me, advise others not to sit by me.

Either way Angel had promised they would come well before the game.

Gaige nearly held her breath as she heard a car door slam. All her teammates were here. It had to be her. Maya tensed up as well, still watching over the young girl. She was absolutely ready to freeze someone in place should anything be amiss.

As Angel and her guardian rounded the corner and came into view Gaige and Maya breathed a collective sigh of relief. Tall, thin, robot parts. She was relatively sure his name was “Rhys” or something. Angel was walking between him and… wow, she had not been kidding about the “short” part. The second man had to be on eye level with Gaige herself. Possibly shorter.

The blue haired woman left to rejoin her girlfriend in doing warm-ups with the other students. It wasn’t the dad and it wasn’t his crazy girlfriend. Things would be fine without her.

The tall, thin man immediately lost interest in actively watching Angel, letting his short friend drag him in a beeline for the food carts that littered the area. This suited Gaige just fine. She bounced up to her friend and trapped her in a bear hug, lifting her off the ground while she giggled.

Still keeping her captive off the ground Gaige spoke, “Oh my god I’m like, soooo relieved it’s not one of the don’t-talk-to-you guardians!”

Angel nodded, face brushing against the baseball cap, “Me too! I’m not surprised though, usually dad goes with Rhys since he’s typically got nothing better to do with him. Well, usually dad doesn’t have much for that Vasquez guy either but I think that’s because dad doesn’t like him terribly much.”

Gaige looked over at the two who were ordering from the hot dog vendor, “They uh, really don’t give a shit, do they?

Angel shook her head, “No, no, Rhys cares. He just, you know, acknowledges that a 17-year-old girl can be left alone for five minutes without dying or being kidnapped or both. Also he keeps looking up when he thinks we can’t see him.”

Gaige flicked her eyes up at that to see that Angel was right, catching the man looking over at them before pretending to be focused on the man he was walking next to.

“Are you going to put me down ever?” Angel said with a bit of a smile. Normally she wouldn’t protest but her arms were starting to go a little numb.

Gaige finally returned her to the ground but quickly slid her hand into hers, pulling her towards the girls warming up. She ignored most of them, only ruffling the hair of one incredibly scraggly blonde girl as she passed.

Angel could have sworn she heard her say, “Ohhh girrrl, that your new bomb-ass main squeeze?”

It was quickly put out of her mind as she saw who Gaige was pulling her towards. The two Sirens. Angel felt a slight pang of nervousness. The two women regarded her warmly though as she tried to relax. Gaige bounced off to go warm-up with the other girls, leaving Angel to talk Siren stuff with the other two.

Within a few minutes the thin girl had gotten the two up to date on her situation. They'd already gotten the gist from Gaige but knowing the details, well, both the women were just about ready to go on the warpath.

Lilith spoke up first, “Woooow and your dad's name is?”

Angel was fully aware this was a threat against him and she wasn't opposed, “Jack. Er… Handsome Jack.”

A look of recognition passed between the two elder Sirens. The younger one didn't know what to make of that. They kept talking to her so at least they didn't hate her for being related to him.

“Alright, I know it's probably a stretch but do you think you can come here often enough to be trained? If that's what you want it'll be hard to swing...” Lilith asked, looking over at the men Angel had shown up with. Neither seemed to really be concerned she was talking to other Sirens.

Angel looked uncertain, “I can try…”

It took her a few minutes to explain the whole guardian situation. How some were okay and others weren't. At the end the two women nodded.

“Well… it's worth a shot. Why don't you follow Maya to the second field? You can start today.”

Angel blushed, fiddling with her hands, “I told Gaige I'd watch her play today. Can we maybe start afterwards? I also need to tell Rhys. He'll be fine with it but he does need to know.”

Before she could apologize for babbling Maya put a hand on her head, “It’s fine, get what you need to do done.”

As Angel smiled and hopped off to rejoin Gaige Lilith leaned in towards Maya, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? We know Jack. The chance that asshole will let her come again…”

Maya put a hand on her girlfriend’s waist, pulling her closer, “That’s a problem for another day. Let’s just let her have her fun for now. Like you said, who knows if he’ll let her come here again.”

Lilith looked at Angel surrounded by her peer group, probably for the first time in her life, and nodded. They could just take their chances on this one.

With the other girls Angel found herself being questioned by the mangy looking girl with the blonde hair. She’d managed to catch the name ‘Tiny Tina’ before being barraged with questions regarding her and Gaige. Largely inappropriate questions using vernacular that the recluse only knew about half of.

The little blonde girl bounced off when summoned by Lilith though.

She looked at Gaige in confusion only to get a shrug, “We just let her talk. Makes her happy.”

“She looks a lot younger than everyone else,” Angel said, staring at the girl who was now chucking baseballs at a terrifying speed under instruction of the older Siren. If that’s her warm up her actual pitching must be bone shattering. She didn’t look like a teenager like the rest of them though.

“Tina’s a little older than she looks, she’s thirteen. I mean, we’re supposed to be a high school team but Lilith’s ex was like, super insistent they let her play and junk. She’s a hella good pitcher though so we’re not complaining.”

As she said that another team started entering the field, Angel supposed they must be the away team.

“Oh hey! The Bandits are here! Hey, you gotta cheer extra loud for us to win okay? I’ll hit a homerun for you, I swearsies,” Gaige said with a wink, nudging Angel towards the stands.

While she walked over she observed more people joining the two coaches. A solemn looking military man, a ridiculously huge biker-looking dude and two tall, rail thin men holding hands. Well, the one with the dreadlocks was a man. On closer inspection Angel wasn’t entirely sure the other one was even human.

As Angel climbed her way up to the top seat of the bleachers she was finally rejoined by her guardians, now carrying what was probably twice their weight in junk food. Rhys handed her an unnecessarily large thing of ice cream and a bag of cotton candy that was nearly half her height. Judging by prior knowledge of past events this was only the first course in this diabetic nightmare feast.

“Which one’s your friend?” Rhys said through a mouthful of hot dog as he pointed at the gaggle of girls.

He was trying to keep up the facade that he hadn’t been keeping an eye firmly watching her the whole time. Hell, she was pretty certain she’d caught his robotic eye lighting up and scanning people for potential threats. She appreciated the effort of him at least pretending she was independent though.

She played along, pointing out Gaige as the huddle dispersed, “Her, the redhaired one with the robot arm.”

Rhys pouted at that, “They wouldn’t let me on the company team because of mine, no fair.”

He complained more as Vaughn smacked his other arm, “No, they wouldn’t let you on the team because you’re a horrible cheater who linked your eye to your arm and let it auto-aim for you. Also stop being jealous of teenage girls. It’s weird.”

Before Rhys could protest, the announcer drowned out the crowd out as the game started. Angel started shoveling the ice cream into her mouth as everyone ran to their positions.

Gaige waved at her from the outfield before the first pitch was tossed.

The game was fairly uneventful for a while. Just your standard baseball stuff that a nerdy gym dodger like me couldn’t write terribly well or interesting without hours of pointless research. Especially considering you yourself are probably not invested in the particulars of the game.

Anyways, back to girls being cute and flirting with each other.

Angel knew little of baseball but she knew enough that the Firehawks were doing well and that it was Gaige’s turn at bat. Maybe her last? She wasn’t sure.

Either way Gaige turned to where Angel was sitting and pointed at her with a wink as if trying to wordlessly communicate the corny statement of ‘this one’s for you!’ The metal hand let off a little spark as Gaige pretended to fire it and turned back to the pitcher. Angel blushed furiously and she felt a different metal hand pinch her cheek.

She didn’t look at Rhys as he was mumbling about how cute it was that she had a little girlfriend. She was very, very focused right now.

The other team’s pitcher wound their arm back and threw it as hard as they could at the redhead. They hadn’t been a fan of the premature showboating.

It connected with her bat with a shockingly loud crack.

Literally shocking.

Gaige’s little finger gun flirt had left her arm with some extra charge.

She looked completely shocked herself as the electrified bat sent the ball shooting back at the pitcher at near lethal force. The girl dropped to the dirt with a scream. It sailed over her head but a short second later it connected full force with Tina’s forehead.

Probably for the best she nailed the girl with the thickest skull on the team. She was knocked briefly on her ass but sat up immediately, looking dazed and confused.

Everything was put on pause as Gaige and the military man Angel saw before the game both ran up to her.

The man pulled her to her feet as Gaige apologized profusely, “Oh my god oh my god ohmygod Tina are you okay?!”

“Shawty… when I said….. you can hit that….... not what I meant………...” Tina mumbled with a squished laugh, “Hey, hey… did your lil’ homegirl look impressed? T-tap dat ass in my honor... Peace outtt…..”

The redhead tried not to laugh because, yeah, Tina was alright. The small girl went on to wander a bit helter-skelter to the dugout, blowing kisses to the crowd as she went. She made a point to blow one at Angel with a slightly off-target gesture towards Gaige.

The quiet girl in the stands was a bit baffled by the turn of events. She was silently grateful that of all the positive guardians that could have come with, it was Rhys. He was used to robot arm malfunctions. Timothy probably would have been dragging her out of the stadium and to her dad in sheer panic if he’d seen that.

She looked around. A lot of parents looked mortified, a few kids were staring in awe and a few teenagers were cheering. She could see Lilith and Maya already huddled up with the few other strange adults that had shown up, whispering furiously.

Eventually Lilith managed to get the game going again, grabbing the woman running the other team. Both found it better to act like everything was okay.

Gaige found herself sitting out none the less, Maya chastising her for showing off like that. She could feel eyes from the crowd focusing on her. Eventually the redhead dragged herself up the bleachers and collapsed next to Angel with a sigh.

She rolled her bright green eyes over to Angel with a pout, “They kicked me out before I could get your homerun, sorry.”

“It’s alright. Speaking of alright is she…” Angel started.

“Yeah, yeah, Tina’s a fighter. I’ve seen her take harder hits than that. Still feel bad though, proooobably not the best to rattle her head around like that. It’s already a mess up there. Don’t need to make it worse.”

Angel finally introduced the two corporate men sitting next to her who were doing a poor job of looking like they belonged at a little league match, “This is Rhys and that’s his boyfriend, Vaughn.”

At the same time Rhys went for a handshake, Gaige went for a high five.

Eventually they managed to reconcile it in a very awkward low five, highlighted by the metallic clank of metal hand on metal hand.

She stared back out at the game, “Sorry I wasn’t out there for more of it, Angel.”

The pale girl shook her head, putting a hand on the redhead’s, “It’s okay. You and me get to spend more time together this way.”

There was a long silence as Gaige started blushing furiously. She could hear the two men whispering something about them being adorable. That wasn’t helping. She jumped as she felt something soft brush her cheek. Looking down at confusion she was greeted with a large puff of pink.

Angel continued to hold out the piece of cotton candy with a soft smile on her face.

If Gaige had thought her face was red before… well, it was nothing compared to this. She obediently opened her mouth though, letting her friend pop the huge piece of sugar fluff into her mouth.

They made eye contact and started giggling madly, all but ignoring the game as they joked around and fed each other the various treats scattered around their group. Their laughter nearly made the both of them choke several times but that only made them more amused.

Next to them Rhys hooked his human arm around Vaughn’s shoulders as he started teasing him, “Why aren’t we that cute? Are we too old to be a cute couple anymore?”

The short man’s only response was to offer up his half eaten hot dog.

He just pushed it away, laughing, “No, man, don’t shove your sausage in my face. That’s not cute, it’s just messy.”

Vaughn snorted as he tried to suppress a smile, “That’s not what you said last night.”

“Bro! Children! We’re watching them!” Rhys said, gesturing to the girls who were now looking at them and doing a poor job of hiding their laughter.

Putting on her best mock ‘mother’ voice Gaige leaned over Angel, “Do you guys need anything? Some snacks? A condom? Let me know! Oh god, love ya!”

“See? They’re practically adults,” Vaughn said, pointing at the two mocking girls.

Rhys looked like he wanted to continue protesting but gave up, laughing as he was offered the gross, partially eaten hot dog again. He accepted this time though.

Thankfully the two guardians didn’t hear Gaige lean over and whisper to their ward, “Should I find something more suggestive for you to eat too?”

They did notice the strangled noise Angel made that eventually twisted into laughter though.

The game went late and the sun started setting on the diamond as the remaining girls played.

As the game finally came to a close Gaige carefully put her metal hand over Angel’s boney one. She immediately realized the futility of using the unfeeling robot hand for this. She couldn’t even feel it.

She did feel Angel lean against her though, thin hand escaping hers and finding a new home around her waist.

Neither girl had ever been more upset about having to go home.


	5. Intentions and Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel's dad leaves on a business trip and leaves her in the care of a somewhat less attentive guardian.
> 
> Of course she invites her new friend over.

Angel was happier than she had been in her entire life and certainly was feeling much, much braver as a consequence. At long last, the spark of teenage rebellion was lit in her heart. She had no doubt it was Gaige’s influence.

She had somehow managed to get her father to consent to let her go to more games in the future. He, of course, had aggressively shot down the idea of her joining the team first though. But she mostly had presented that exclusively for haggling purposes.

It had only been a week since the game, she knew she wouldn’t be able to go again until at least next Saturday.

She didn’t want to wait that long to be around Gaige again and that flame of freedom was burning intensely in her chest.

The girls were still talking every night but hadn’t spoken about what had happened at the end of the game. The hand holding, Angel leaning on her, nothing. Both found themselves blushing more when they had their moonlit window conversations though. The darkness masked it well.

When Angel found out her dad was going to be gone this weekend she couldn’t help herself.

Still soaring on the adrenaline of insubordination she proposed her plan to a completely agreeable Gaige.

“My dad’s gone this weekend,” Angel started, twirling a piece of her hair playfully around her finger. The redhead’s eyes widened. The first sparks of anarchy growing in another girl’s heart was a beautiful thing to see.

Gaige nearly fell out the window, leaning forwards in excitement, “That tooootally sounds like a line from the start of a porno but abso-fuckin’-lutely!!”

Angel giggled, “I didn’t even tell you my plan!”

“Yeah but I know what you’re going to say! My dad’s gone, come have a sleepover, no one has to know. How secret, how romantic!” she said, dramatically sprawling herself across her desk like a modern day Juliet. Except with hopefully less poison and needlessly dying over someone you just met.

Angel blushed dark enough that the redhead could see it, even in the dark, “I will have a guardian here though. But I also know which one. It’s not ideal but… well I’ve had him watch me before and there is almost zero chance Wilhelm will ever, ever enter my room unless he thinks I’m in danger. We just have to make sure we’re not loud enough that he can hear.”

“No raunchy stuff then?” Gaige said with a wicked smile ripping across her face, “But seriously, that might be a bit hard. I mean your house is big but…”

“Don’t worry. I’ve kinda already tested to see how much sound carries. It just doesn’t, my dad wasn’t kidding around when he said he didn’t want to hear the neighbors. Every room is practically soundproof.”

“Well, look at you, ya lil’ Shirleylock Holmes. You’re prepared for this. I like, I like. What time should I come over?”

“I’ll have to tell you when it happens. I’m not sure exactly when dad is leaving and it’d be kind of suspicious if I asked. At least I don’t have to eat down there, Wilhelm doesn’t care if I take my food upstairs. Some get a little paranoid that I’ll choke and die or something.”

“You’ve probably never had a sleepover, right?” Gaige asked.

“Not a normal one. I guess I’ve technically had one, back in middle school. My dad doesn’t have many female assistants usually but he had one back then. He left her in charge of me more than anyone else. She… she really cared. Like Rhys does but he still kind of keeps me at arm’s length. He’s scared of what my dad would do if he thought we were too close.”

“This lady was different though?” the redhead said, trying to quietly dig more info out. She hadn’t heard anything about female assistants. Kinda just assumed Angel’s dad was a sexist jackass who never, ever had any.

Angel nodded and continued, “Her name was Athena. She was socially awkward but she always tried to give me a normal life. As much of one as she was capable of giving with dad’s limitations. Sometimes her girlfriend Janey would come with her. She was totally the opposite. Great with kids, constantly comfortable. I always wished they were my parents instead. It had been her idea to have the sleepover.”

“What happened to them? You didn’t mention her before.”

Gaige’s stomach dropped as Angel’s face did. She hadn’t wanted to make her friend sad. She immediately regretting probing.

“Athena… I don’t know what happened to her. I’ve tried to ask dad a few times but he always just completely ignores the question. I haven’t seen her or her girlfriend in years and years. I hope whatever happened that they’re okay.”

There was a grim silence between the two before Angel shook her head.

“That was years ago though. There’s no changing that. I don’t want to look back when there’s so much forward now. Currently, things are going good. I’m happy. Let’s just focus on that” Angel said with renew pep.

“That’s the spirit and who knows? Maybe you’ll see them again some day anyways. Anything is possible.”

Angel nodded smiling softly, “I hope so. You should be getting to bed though. It’s a school night.”

The girls said their goodbyes and goodnights and Angel closed her window.

Gaige remained leaning on the edge of her windowsill though, looking up at the pale girl. She looked so bright right now. Moonlight hitting her face, lighting up her bright eyes even more as she pushed her papers back over her desk to make it look normal. 

This weekend couldn’t come fast enough.

But come it did. At the cost of Gaige's ability to pay attention in class. But it came nonetheless.

Gaige tested her sneaking skills once more as she peeked out her front curtains.

She knew Jack would be leaving sometime soon. Maybe. Sometime today at least. Her own dad had tried to get her to at least sit while she waited but she just shook her head and remained diligently at her post.

She nearly knocked over a lamp in excitement as she finally saw a car pull up. She hunkered down, gripping the curtains as her stare intensified. As always she didn't really get a good look at Angel's dad's face. It still looked like there was something on it. Maybe it was piercings? Placement didn't make sense though. Who the hell pierces their chin and forehead?

She shook her head, she could maybe ask Angel later. Right now she needed to scope out the babysitter.

The huge man met Angel’s dad halfway. Gaige found him partially intimidating, partially kinda cool looking. What? Robotics are neat and he had the fighty kind. Rhys was really the only other cyborg she’d seen other than herself and he was nice but his mechanical parts were, augh, practical.

Her interest was fleeting though as she dashed back upstairs. He was here which meant Angel was free. She shocked the girl sitting at her desk in the other house as she watched the redhead burst into her own messy room, fling herself onto her bed and flip on her back, pretending to nonchalantly check her ECHO device. She was stealing looks out her window and into Angel’s room constantly though, to the amusement of the occupant.

Just as Angel predicted, Wilhelm made his one check up. He barely opened the door more than a crack, just enough to make sure she was in there, uttered something incredibly brief and shut it again. The dark haired girl remained at her desk for the duration, stayed still for a few seconds after her left then immediately swung open her window and waved for Gaige to come over.

They’d become incredibly accustomed to the rope climb now, although this time Gaige’s dad had to pull the rope in after her. Too suspicious. Angel was a bit nervous there was no quick way for her friend to leave but she wasn’t about to voice those concerns. She had no solid reason to believe this night wouldn’t go over perfectly.

As she had every other time they’d come in contact Gaige immediately fell into Angel’s arms, burying her face into her neck. The pale girl sometimes wondered if this much physical contact was normal so early on in a friendship. Not that she was complaining, far from it, she was just having a hard time pinning down well… the other girl’s intentions with her.

Angel immediately pushed those words out of her mind. “Intentions” sounded so sinister. “Intentions” were what her dad had for people. She didn’t want to know Gaige’s “intentions”, she wanted to know how her new friend felt about her.

She ran out of time to ponder this as she felt Gaige slip away as suddenly as she’d latched onto her. Looking down she realized the redhead was already wearing pajamas. A t-shirt with a vibrant and somewhat jarring logo for what must be a band and a pair of men’s boxers bearing a design comprised of different sized gears. Mostly the whole thing was bright red and yellow, with some blue mixed in.

Angel looked down and tugged at the bottom of her striped sundress, “I guess I’m a little bit overdressed right now, aren’t I?”

“Oh absolutely, ideally your clothes should be halfway off right about now!” Gaige said with a loud laugh, backpedalling a bit when Angel’s face went somewhat concerningly red and her jaw was threatening to fall right off, “I’m kidding! Oh my god, you should see your face right now. Cute as heelllll. But seriously, yeah, get your jammies on!”

See? Stuff like that. Angel really didn’t know what to make of that. Especially when Gaige politely turned around to give her privacy as she pulled out a nightgown and changed into it. No peeking or anything.

Had she snuck a look at all she would have noticed that in addition to switching clothes, Angel has also taken the time to fix her hair a little and had maybe taken one too many looks at herself in the mirror. Checking to see if she looked presentable but, you know, in a casual I-don’t-deeply-deeply-care-that-my-new-friend-thinks-I-look-cute way.

When Gaige was finally was given the go ahead to turn around she gave a quiet, airy wolf whistle, making that black haired girl’s face go red again. But she couldn’t deny Angel looked adorable in that overly frilly yellow nightgown. Too adorable.

As red as Angel’s face was she was still borderline modeling it, playing with the edge of it and peeking at Gaige from behind her hair.

“So what do you usually do at a sleepover?” she started before batting her eyes and deciding two can play the innuendo game, “I wouldn’t know, it’s my first time. Be gentle.”

Something fried in Gaige’s brain. She wasn’t used to people reciprocating her flirting. It wasn’t long before a wicked grin crossed her face though. She LIKED it. She pranced across the room and hooked an arm around Angel’s waist, spinning her around to gesture to the girl’s massive bed, conveniently covered in copious blankets and pillows.

“Well, Beautiful Angel, we’re going to start with the most sacred of all sleepover activities. The well-beloved pillow fort,” Gaige said, reluctantly letting go of the other girl to start pulling sheets off her bed. She wasn’t alone for long though as hands with delicately yellow-painted nails joined her.

Thank god for Angel’s propensity for sleeping in what was apparently an entire bedding store. In no time they’d hooked up tens of blankets into honestly the best pillow fort Gaige had ever seen. And when they’d somehow managed to run out of pillows Angel had ducked out to grab some more. She’d returned with armfuls of yellow and black pillows.

They stepped back to admire their handiwork. Large, swooping blue and yellow sheets held up by matching pillows. They’d even managed to get the sheets hooked up on the shelves, making the whole thing nearly as tall as the room itself.

Gaige pulled back the front flap with a deep, affected bow before looking up and wiggling her eyebrows, “After you, my princess.”

“Oh now I’m royalty now too?” Angel said, giving the bottom of her nightgown a little twirl.

“Well, I already gave you a title. Beautiful. Might as well go the whole nine yards. Or, uh, however many yards it’s supposed to be.”

Angel only laughed and crawled in with Gaige quick on her heels to join her. As the tall girl curled up in the blankets and pillows they’d littered the ground with she immediately found herself face-to-face with her friend.

Once again she wasn’t sure of the redhead’s intentions, especially as she felt a metal hand rest over her own and gently curl around her thin fingers.

“So… what now?” Angel asked, trying to ignore the fact Gaige’s face was mere inches from hers.

“Well… normally we’d be starting off with some gossiping but we don’t both know a lot of, you know, other teenagers to talk about. Well I know ones. You don’t really. So unless you wanna gossip about your guardians we can’t really do that.”

Angel searched her mind but didn’t really have much. Corporate cogs are kind hard to gossip about if you don’t work with them. The best she could muster is is, “Rhys thinks Vasquez is a jerk. He calls him Assquez.”

Gaige laughed, “Uhm, I think you’re supposed to talk about stuff that’s supposed to be private. Not stuff they’re incredibly open about. He mentioned how much he hates Vasquez so many times during the game last week his boyfriend shoved an entire handful of popcorn into his face to stop him.”

Angel perked up, “Oh! I got something! The first time Rhys stayed over he snuck Vaughn in after I went to sleep and I caught them sleeping together and they paid me a hundred bucks not to tell my dad.”

“They were having sex in your living room?!” Gaige exclaimed, genuinely surprised the boring business men would do something scandalous. Well the little one seemed like he was probably secretly a freak but not the tall one.

“Oh. Uh, no, literally sleeping. Apparently they’ve shared a bed since college and neither sleeps well without the other.

“Boo, less juicy,” Gaige pouted before giggling and poking at her friend’s face, “Cuter though and proooobably less mind scarring for you. Unless you’re into that kinda thing. Watchin’ older dudes goin’ at it.”

“Pervert,” Angel cooed, squeezing the metal hand back. Gaige certainly had ever had someone say that while simultaneously gazing into her eyes. She could get used to that.

Fuck it, Gaige was a girl of action! Of bravery! Of extreme impulsiveness!

However, things went a bit sour as she moved her legs to push herself even closer to Angel to go for the gold. Her foot got caught on a blanket and with an almighty crash she brought down one of the shelves they’d hung the end of the sheet on.

Both girls froze as the calamity ended as quickly as it had started. It was only the beginning of the storm though as they heard heavy footsteps thundering up the stairs. Gaige felt herself being slammed to the floor a bit harder than she would have thought Angel capable of. Kinda into it.

Pillows and blankets were quickly tossed over her as her face was pressed into Angel’s stomach. It didn’t even have to be said that she should remain dead still and dead quiet.

Gaige forced herself not to flinch at the sound of the door being ripped open.

After what must have been a confused pause she heard the flap of the fort opened and a gruff voice ask, “What happened?”

Cool as a cucumber Angel answered, “Sorry, Wilhelm, I wanted to make a pillow fort and I maybe got a little overzealous. I’ll fix the shelf before dad gets home, don’t worry about it.”

Gaige couldn’t see his face, of course, but figured it was probably full of justifiable doubt.

“Unless you want to join me and have a sleepover!” Angel suddenly chirped, shocking both Wilhelm and Gaige.

Her mind’s screams of ‘oh my god Angel what are doing’ were quickly muffled as the man gave a curt ‘No.’ as he quickly left, door firmly clicking shut behind him. They listened as he clomped back down the stairs.

Gaige wiggled her way to freedom from the borderline cocoon she’d been trapped in, “Oh my god, that could have gone sooooo wrong. Way to kick ASS, Angel! How’d you know he’d run like that?”

Angel shrugged, “When you’re under constant surveillance you learn to know the cameras’ blindspots. Wilhelm doesn’t know how to deal with teenage girls. He’ll run away the second he thinks there’s any chance of me actually trying to engage with him. Once while he was taking care of me I wanted to mess with him so I sat down there and made him watch chick flicks with me. He let me paint his nails but I could tell he was dying on the inside.”

“You have. No idea how desperately I want to see that now. I wish I wasn’t smuggled goods, we could go down there and make his life heeellllll. We could give him a whole make over. The works.”

Angel patted her friend’s side, maybe a bit lower on the hip than necessary, “Well. Maybe one day. Who knows? Maybe something will happen that will make dad lighten up. I mean, it’s improbable but anything is possible, technically.”

Gaige highly doubted it but said nothing about that, “Well… at least you’ll be eighteen in like a year right?”

“Yes?” Angel said, not catching what her friend’s meaning at all.

She tapped her metal finger gently on her friend’s pale forehead, “Well, duh, you can leave. If he tries to keep you like this after you’re a legal adult he’ll be hauled off to jail. You’ll be a free girl!”

Gaige almost wanted to laugh at how baffled Angel looked by this concept but decided to refrain as her smile started slowly widening as it dawned upon her, “You’re… you’re right, he can’t keep me.”

“Nuh-uh, frankly the fact he’s getting away with what he’s doing now is. Bull. Shit. You can do whatever you want when you’re eighteen. Run away, get a tattoo, quickie wedding in the Vegas galaxy, whatever. The world will be yours!”

“Where will I go though? I mean… I can leave the house but I don’t have a job or anything.”

Gaige raised an eyebrow cockily, “You have me, duh!”

Angel slipped back into that slightly dumbstruck look for a bit, really not used to the concept of someone being there for her. It wasn’t faked, wasn’t conditional, wasn’t due to working for her dad. Someone was just there… for her.

Gaige was about to make a joke referring back to the quickie wedding but was cut short as she felt Angel’s hands thread through her hair as she was abruptly pulled into a kiss.

Before she even had a chance to react the other girl pulled away looking surprised at herself.

Pale blue eyes stared steadily at her while her own green ones darted around, surprised by being pulled so suddenly into unfamiliar territory. For the first time she noticed that Angel’s face was dotted with nearly invisible freckles. Somewhere in her mind she decided in that moment she was going to kiss each and every one.

Angel giggled as Gaige frantically peppered her face with kisses, pulling her closer than ever before.

Hours later they’d exhausted the mechanic’s list of classic slumber party activities, punctuated by even more brief, tentative, almost frantic kisses. The redhead smiled as the thin girl curled up next to her, pulling one of her thick comforters over the both of them as she settled comfortably into the crook of her neck.

Her eighteenth birthday. She’d be free. They could be together every night, just like this.

The mere thought of that made Gaige’s face nearly split in two as she curled herself more tightly around her new friend.

No, not just her new friend. Her new girlfriend.


	6. Always Listen to the Sirens’ Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel's father has something surprising in store for her.

Their little overnight stunt had gone off without a hitch, to the best of their knowledge.

Wilhelm had honestly completely forgotten about the knocked over shelf. Considering Gaige helped her fix it before leaving Jack was none the wiser when he swung open her bedroom door. Without knocking, of course.

Angel swiveled her chair around, pretending she hadn’t been making faces at the girl next door up until about ten minutes ago while she waited for him to return.

She pushed herself up off the chair and walked to Jack’s open arms, wrapping her own thin arms around his waist. She didn’t want to but she knew it would be in her best interests to oblige. That was only confirmed as her dad hugged her back, slightly crushing her, “Did you and Wilhelm have fun? Ha.”

Jack was well aware that Wilhelm probably said all of five words to her. If that. Honestly, he preferred that. He didn’t like competition and his semi-robotic subordinate was great at making sure people don’t die without getting attached to them.

He’d thought his previous assistant would have filled that position nicely until he found out she’d been bringing her girlfriend over and playing house. God knows where she is now. He was currently not-so-blissfully unaware that Rhys was playing dangerously close to that as well. Mostly because he didn’t realize a certain accountant was his boyfriend.

Angel nodded and forced a little laugh, knowing that agreeing with and laughing at her dad’s jokes was generally for the best, “I only saw him when I went down to get food.”

Jack finally freed her from the somewhat painful hug, letting her sit down on her bed before something bright yellow caught his eye. The girl tried to not look terrified as he grabbed his pillow off the bed, looking a bit confused. The lone remnant of her and Gaige’s pillow fort.

“Hey, uh, Angel? Did you go in my room?” he said. He didn’t sound angry necessarily but the accusatory tone was enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. The last thing she wanted was for him to realize something, anything was different. It would kill her to never see Gaige again.

Within a split second she expertly replied in a perfectly practiced pseudo-genuine tone, ‘I just… really missed you.”

Jack’s face softened as much as the mask would allow for. Angel obediently raised her arms for another hug. Thankfully this one was a little less crushing, she even allowed herself to pretend for a second she was a little girl again and her dad hadn’t become a megalomaniacal mass murderer.

However, a few seconds later she felt the unnatural skin of the mask plant a kiss on her forehead. An unpleasant reminder of the reality of the situation.

Her dad pulled away, ruffling the dark hair on the unshaved half of her head, before leaving the room. Her heart skipped a beat. There was no sound of the lock behind him. Some part of her brain desperately hoped it wasn’t an accident.

She nearly ran to the door, cracking it open and sticking her head out.

Jack turned his head, acknowledging that yes, he’d left the door unlocked on purpose. She quietly squeaked out a good night that he returned before descending down the stairs.

She felt a pang of incredibly, incredibly misplaced guilt knowing she was going behind his back.

Angel returned to her bed, rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling for a while. What Gaige had said the other day had really stuck with her. Eighteen.

She closed her eyes with a smile, imagining the bright future. She really hoped all of that business would go down as smoothly as everything else had so far. Befriending Gaige, the baseball games, the sleepover.

She opened her eyes again as she rolled onto her side. Her dad’s bright yellow and black pillow was still there. She wondered if he’d just forgotten or left it intentionally for her.

She reached out, grabbing it and pulling it over to her.

As Angel curled around it part of her mind reminded her that what she said earlier wasn’t entirely a lie.

She missed her dad.

No, not the man currently getting ready for bed in the other side of the house.

Before her mom was dead. Before her Siren powers had kicked in. Before the mask.

Tears started rolling down her cheeks, dotting the yellow fabric with increasing frequency. She closed her eyes again, falling asleep as she remembered who her dad once was.

\- - -

The next day was a complete shock to Angel.

Yes, she’d known her dad had agreed to let her go to the games but this? She hadn’t expected this. The baseball field was incredibly close to their house, just a few blocks, but the last thing she’d ever expected was for her dad to let her go all by herself.

She hadn’t gone somewhere alone in… well, ever. She’d been constantly monitored since the very day she got her Siren powers. And before that she’d been way too young to be wandering off alone.

But here she was, standing dumbstruck in front of Jack who quipped, “What? Three blocks too scary for ya?”

She snapped out of it, shaking her head, “No, no, it’s fine. I’m just… surprised.”

The understatement of the year.

He insisted it was because he’d already said she could go but that all his assistants were busy. However, the honest truth was he’d gotten paranoid in the night and checked up on her. Seeing her wrapped around the pillow he’d left for her was enough incentive for him to ‘reward’ her with this.

She remained in a state of shock as she was aggressively lectured like a child about the dangers of outside. He put a cellphone in her hands, telling her to call him when the game ended. If it was really late, he said he would come pick her up.

Angel was immediately sent upstairs to get changed. She absolutely dressed to further gain his favor. She tugged on the yellow sundress with the big, black ribbon he’d gotten her for her last birthday. She dusted off a shoebox from the same celebration, pulling out a pair of fancy cowgirl boots. A gift from his girlfriend, Nisha. She pulled out her favorite yellow ribbon as well, quickly braiding her hair and using it to secure her thick black hair in place. She peeked in the mirror, knowing her dad would approve.

A voice at the back of her mind chirped that Gaige was certainly going to approve as well. She gave herself a flirtatious little twirl in the mirror, winking with a smile. Yeah, this outfit would do the trick on all accounts.

However, Angel didn’t truly realize the magnitude of the situation until she was standing on the front doorstep. As strong hands released her shoulders she felt the immediate instinct to run. Of course, she didn’t.

Instead, she turned around and gave her dad a big hug. She, of course, realized he really hadn’t done anything kind or loving that deserved affection but if this could become a regular thing she’d hug him all he wanted.

He held on for so long she was mildly concerned he was going to drag her back inside. He didn’t though, eventually letting go and letting her start walking towards the park.

\- - -

Gaige had watched dumbstruck from her front window as Angel started walking past.

Even more surprised by the fact she hadn’t snuck out or anything. The redhead had watched her controlling father say goodbye at the door.

Gaige still hadn’t gotten a good look at his face. She never did. She had considered asking a thousand times but there really isn’t a non-offensive way to ask “hey, what the fuck is wrong with your dad’s face?” There just isn’t.

She wasted no time though, alerting her own dad to the anomaly before throwing on her baseball uniform, running out to the garage and hopping on her mountain bike.

Gaige hauled ass, nearly giving her girlfriend a heart attack as the bike expertly screeched to a halt in front of her. She mocked tipping a nonexistent hat and spoke with a deeply affected British accent, “Why! My good lady, you seem to be lost. May I be of… assistance?”

Still in a bit of a state of shock, Angel took a second before she dumbly managed to stutter out, “He… he’s letting me walk there myself.”

She even pointed to the nearby park as if her words had been confusing. Well, they had been. To her at least. Honestly Gaige was pretty shocked too but she was taking it in significantly better stride than the black haired girl who looked like a lost child.

Gaige swung her legs off her bike, letting it rest against the traffic sign as she grabbed Angel into a bear hug, “Aww, look at daddy’s big girl! Walking to the park all by herself.”

She was about to rebuke the teasing but the second she opened her mouth again she found herself tearing up, “He’s… he let me go. I’m not… I’m alone.”

Seeing her girlfriend getting obviously distressed about this was starting to make the redhead nervous as she quickly wiped away anything resembling tears from the girl’s eyes as she reminded her, “Nuh-uh, you’re not alone. You have me, remember?”

Angel nearly knocked Gaige off her feet as her arms escaped the hug, wrapping around her shoulders as she kissed the redhead firmly on the mouth.

It lasted for only a brief second before the tall girl pulled away again, saying through near hyperventilating, “Soon… it’ll be like this all the time right? Eighteenth birthday. I’ll be free.”

Gaige grabbed the back of her girlfriend’s neck, pulling her down a bit so their foreheads could touch as she nodded, “Hell yeah! We could even walk more than three blocks. We can walk as many blocks as we want. Fuck it, we can walk around the whole town an’ there’s nothing your dad can do to stop it. It’ll be anarchy, baby!”

They would have stayed there for longer had Angel not leaned back, looking at the clock on her phone, “We, uhm, I don’t want to stop but we do have a game to get to.”

Gaige nodded, hopping onto her bike again and patting the handlebars for Angel to sit on them.

It became immediately apparent that the girl had never ridden a bike at all, let alone with another person. The redhead tried not to giggle as her girlfriend awkwardly tried to situate herself.

“Just keep your weight centered and hang on tight, I won’t go too fast. I promise,” Gaige said, gently removing Angel’s hands from their death grip on the hand brakes.

She nodded but still found herself nearly screaming as they started moving.

\- - -

Turns out Angel is a big fan of riding bikes. Gaige reminded herself to look up the cost of one later. After they got the girl out of her dad’s house they could totally buy her her own. Tassels, a bell, whatever she wanted.

She reluctantly hopped off to let Gaige chain it up by the entrance of the park. She was even more reluctant as she started to follow Maya away from the rest of the team. After a few steps she’d turned around and bounced back to give Gaige a kiss and wish her well, “Good luck with your game!”

“Good luck with your training,” the redhead replied with a wink, “This time I promise to hit you a home run, even though you’re not watching. No K.O.ing Tina this time, I swearsies.”

The mechanic solemnly raised a pinky finger which her girlfriend imitated, wrapping them together.

They were interrupted by Tina popping up out of nowhere, pointing at the intertwined pinkies, “I’mma hold y’all ladies to that. No more balls-ity balls hittin’ my face, G. That’s my money maker. Don’t fucks with my money maker.”

They tried not to laugh as the small girl pointed at her eyes then their own in turn. It was hard not to as one of hers was staring off into the distance, not matching up with the one glaring intently at them.

Of course, she enthusiastically made a crude hand gesture with a smile before disappearing into the crowd of girls.

Angel gave Gaige one last peck on the cheek before they each followed a different Siren. Angel happily bounced after Maya, Gaige following Lilith.

\- - -

Gaige had to admit she wasn’t terribly focused on the game. They were playing against the worst team in the league and were brutally smearing them across the field.

The other team was being further demoralized by the clearly drunk Truxican man heckling their every move. It was always a miracle Mordecai didn’t get kicked out of every single game. Just most of them. Right now Roland was giving him a look that threatened that this would be one of them.

However, the slaughter was uninteresting compared to watching her girlfriend testing out her powers with Maya carefully watching her.

Gaige almost didn’t notice her own coach suddenly sitting next to her. She jumped a little when the woman’s blue marked hand tapped her on the shoulder.

She perked up quickly though, “Hey! What’s up?”

“Can I… ask you some questions?” Lilith asked, unconsciously making small tears in a copy of the team roster she was twisting in her hands.

Gaige was a bit surprised that her usually confident mentor looked nervous, “Uh, sure?”

“I noticed you kissed Angel before the game.”

“Yeah, an’ you kissed Maya, what of it?” the redhead snapped, suddenly a bit more defensive than need be. Dang teenagers.

“That’s… not the issue. I’m just a little concerned. Have you... ever met Angel’s father? Does he know about you? Or more specifically you two together?”

Gaige calmed down, realizing it wasn’t a slight against them. Her coach was just concerned about Angel’s scary dad, probably for good reason. She felt a bit bad about being touchy, “Sorry… no, he doesn’t know. I’ve only ever seen him from a distance. Do you, like, know him or something?”

Lilith didn’t answer but her face betrayed her. She absolutely did. Before Gaige could question her on the matter she started speaking, “Look just. Be careful. He’s a dangerous man. You’re playing with fire. If anything… look, just don’t be alone with him and if anything bad happens tell me immediately, okay?”

Gaige chose to ignore the fact Lilith was crushing her arm a little bit, “I’ll tell you, I promise. Hey if you know him, what's wrong with his face? I usually only see him from like, thirty or fifty feet away but it looks like there’s metal sticking out of it.”

Lilith blanched and shook her head, “Look just don’t worry about that. But, uhm, maybe don’t ever mention you know me if he’s ever aware you’re hanging out with his daughter. It’d be for the best, okay?”

Gaige nodded again, smiling as Lilith released the vice grip she had on her arm and ruffled her bangs before leaving to go watch the rest of the game.

\- - -

The game ended incredibly quickly, the sun was still shining and the band of teenagers were lazily celebrating their consummate win against the incredibly weak team.

Angel returned to Gaige but before she could start celebrating with the others she felt her girlfriend’s calloused hand grab hers and start pulling her towards the chained up mountain bike. The pale girl crouched next to the redhead as she started working the lock, “Is something wrong? Aren’t we going to celebrate with the others?”

Gaige shook her head, her ponytail bouncing wildly side to side as she did, “Nuh-uh. The game ended so early and it’d just be like, a total waste if we didn’t get some time alone! Like, real alone! Not desperately-hoping-your-dad-doesn’t-walk-in alone.”

Angel looked apprehensively at her girlfriend and shook her head, “No, I really don’t want to do that. It’s not a good idea. He actually let me go out alone, Gaige. I don’t want to take two steps forward and twelve back.”

The rebellious girl didn’t have a terribly good concept of restraint though, passionately grabbing the nervous girl’s hands and smiling enthusiastically, “Come on, Beautiful Angel! Who knows if you’ll ever get another chance like this before you turn eighteen! Like, yeah, maybe he’ll find out but also maybe he won’t. This could be your only chance for like, half a year to get out and be free. I’d just grab it an’ run if I was you!”

Angel wasn’t terribly convinced as she carefully balanced herself on the handlebars again. She offered up one more weak protest to Gaige’s enthusiastic plans, “I just… I don’t want things to get worse.”

Gaige only smiled wildly as she started pedaling her bike out towards the nearby forest preserve, “Of course they won’t, you have me after all. Don’t you?”

Angel smiled although Gaige couldn’t see it. She still thought this was a horrible idea but as they disappeared further and further into the woods she found herself caring less and less.

\- - -

They left the bike chained up by the parking lot outside the entry to the pathway, opting to walk hand-in-hand through the trees.

Gaige smiled as she watched Angel’s soft blue eyes light up as she looked around. Given her girlfriend’s background it was no surprise that the tall, thin girl found so much beauty in nature. Hell, she probably hadn’t ever walked around outside like this since she was a child. If ever.

The redhead giggled manically as she easily tugged the other girl away from the dirt road that wound its way through the preserve and through a hidden side path.

She protested a little as she pushed aside the branches, “Do… do you know where you’re going? I don’t want to get lost out here.”

Gaige only looked back with a wicked smile, “It’s too late, I’m always lost in your eyes.”

She laughed as she felt a thin hand smack her arm as she continued to pull, “I’m serious! If we get lost… I just want to get home before it gets dark out.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. I come here all the time ‘cept usually I’m just a teensy-weensy bit more alone. Unless it’s like, a cursed place where only the chosen one may tread I thiiink we’ll be just fine.”

Before she could voice any more concerns Angel found herself suddenly standing in a small clearing filled to the brim with wildflowers. Gaige let go of her hand as she started gathering up handfuls. The dark haired girl watched her as she gently lowered herself, fanning out her skirt as she sat on the soft, dry grass.

In no time Gaige was approaching her, hands deftly weaving a flower crown and dropping it gently on her girlfriend’s head, “Soooo how do you like my evil lair? Pretty sweet, huh? My dad helped teach me how to get more wildflowers to grow, I’ve been working on this bad boy since I was like, eight or something.”

Angel looked around the clearing in absolute wonder before gently touching the string of flowers on her head, “It’s so amazing, Gaige. Can you teach me how to make these? I kinda feel like a fairy princess.”

Gaige smiled, pulling up another fistful of flowers before carefully taking the other girl’s hands and helping her weave a second daisy chain. She smiled, unsurprised as it was gently placed on her own head as her girlfriend softly rearranged her unruly red hair so it would stay in place.

Both girls stared at each other, completely lost in the moment as they leaned forward and met in the middle for a kiss. As their hands intertwined they thought of nothing but each other and their future. How this could be every day for them. Angel could be free, Gaige would be happy and neither of them would be alone.

There are dangers to losing yourself in a loved one’s eyes though. For example, not hearing the sounds of snapping twigs and rustling leaves as her absolutely enraged father comes stomping through the woods.

As Handsome Jack glared at her with cold, mismatched eyes through the mask that was bolted to his skull Gaige realized with not-so-faint horror that’s what had been wrong with his face all along. The fact it wasn’t.

She remembered Lilith’s warning. Never be alone with him.

Gaige’d never realized how secluded her old hideaway was until now.


	7. In the Belly of the Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaige and her father receive a surprising invitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's no actual eating disorder depicted in this but stuff close enough that if you avoid that topic, maybe you should sit this one out. More like hunger strike but still.
> 
> I'll never get enough of writing Gaige's hippie dad but apparently I can't write Serious Jack very well.

The next ten minutes had been a complete blur to Gaige.

All she remembered was looking up at the slightly disheveled man for a few seconds. Leaves in his hair, small scratches from rogue branches littering his arms, breathing heavily from running through the forest.

The silent stare off was only allowed to exist on the basis Jack really didn’t want to kill someone in right in front of his daughter.

Either way, as he racked his brain trying to wrap it around this extreme turn of events his daughter worked much faster, springing up and shoving Gaige out the other side of the clearing with a loud, “Run!”

The redhead immediately legged it before she could even think. As she ripped through the unknown side of the forest she realized with cold horror that she’d left her girlfriend alone with a man who has an apparent history of violence. Lilith’s words echoed in her mind again. Never be alone with him.

Before she could consciously make the choice to turn back her sneaker caught on a branch and the world flew into her as she crashed to the ground.

When she looked up she realized she had no idea where she was. Had she turned at all when she started running? Had she gone straight? Either way when she pushed herself back up she took off back in the direction she thought she came from.

Her calculations were not correct though. She eventually emerged from the forest, bloody and bruised but found herself standing by the bleachers of the ballpark instead of her little hidey hole.

Before she could even think of trying to double back again to find Angel and her father she was accosted from behind, hands grabbing her shoulders.

Her mind screamed ‘Handsome Jack’ and she immediately kicked behind her as hard as she could.

She didn’t expect to hear a woman scream when she did that.

Hands released her and she whirled around to find herself now at eye level with Lilith, doubled over and holding her knee in pain.

“Gaige! What the fuck!” she said, rolling up her pant leg to survey the damage, “Why are you bac- Oh my god.”

In a heartbeat her coach stopped giving a fuck about her own bruised knee and started freaking out over the beat up teenager. She ducked back into the equipment shed and came out with a first aid kit.

“Gaige if he touched you I swear I’ll… I’ll…” Lilith half asked, half threatened as she started pulling out box after box of cartoon bandaids. Her hands were shaking so bad, half of them were falling to the ground.

“He didn’t hurt me, I ran away. I just kinda ran away into a lot of pointy branches and rocks. But I… I left Angel…” Gaige admitted.

As she looked up at Lilith she felt guiltier than ever. The Siren paid no mind to it, comforting the almost crying teenager, “Look, Jack’s a horrible man but at worst he he’s just going to carry her home like a sack of potatoes. The fact you got out of there is what’s important.”

The bright green eyes looking up at her didn’t look remotely comforted by that statement though.

“Look, I’ll get you patched up then I’ll go see if she’s okay alright? Just give me a- goddamn it, Maya get over here!” Lilith said, fumbling with box of bandaids before throwing them to the ground in irritation.

The blue haired woman popped her head out from the parking lot, confusion turning to panic as she ran across the field.

Gaige was handed Siren to Siren, Lilith pretending that she hadn’t forgotten about her girlfriend’s healing powers as she questioned the other redhead about Jack and Angel’s location. A shrug wasn’t exactly the answer she was looking for.

Either way she flitted away, leaving her charge with her girlfriend.

\- - -

Within no time Gaige was patched up, prodding at her unmarred skin in amazement. She wondered if her own girlfriend could do stuff like that. All it had taken was a glowing hand passing over the cuts before they just… disappeared.

They sat together to wait but as the sun set Maya received a text to just go ahead and take Gaige home, Jack had returned home with Angel.

The Siren could feel the mechanic’s heart beating like a jackhammer as she jumped on the motorcycle behind her. She offered up some weak consolations, never good at this sort of thing, “I’m sure everything will be okay…”

Her mind was screaming at her that they’d be lucky to ever see the young Siren again.

She didn’t say that though, of course.

Within a few minutes Maya carefully pulled into the driveway, making sure she parked by the side door so that Gaige could get into her house without being seen.

Gaige gave her a bit of a one-sided hug before disappearing inside her house.

\- - -

Gaige didn’t see Angel for two weeks. Not a glimpse, not a word.

The deafening silence was horrible, not knowing if Angel was okay or not or what the hell was going on over there.

Every day she found herself staring at the closed curtains of the other girl’s room more and more.

Nothing changed until she came home from practice late one day.

She called out for her dad when she opened the door as always, confused by the uncertain tone of him telling her he was in the living room with a guest.

Gaige could have sworn her heart stopped as she turned the corner and saw the same man she’d ran away from half a month ago sitting on their couch, with a fake smile plastered on his unnatural face. Her own father looked slightly uncomfortable as he instructed her to go upstairs.

\- - -

Gaige pressed her ear against the crack of her door, trying to hear the men talking downstairs to no avail.

She remained there though, tensed up and holding her biggest, heaviest wrench so hard her knuckles were sheet white. Should anything happen, she was ready to bash some creepy masked skull.

However, the only skull that cracked was her own when her door was suddenly opened.

“Oh sweetheart I’m sorry!” her dad exclaimed, immediately putting hands on her head and kissing where the door had hit.

However, the door hitting her hadn’t surprised her as much as the information her provided her with next: they were going to be having dinner with Jack and his daughter tomorrow night.

\- - -

The next twenty-four hours were a baffling haze to Gaige.

She stared at her phone almost the entire time, wondering if she should tell Lilith about this or not. In the end, she didn’t.

She thought back to things Angel had mentioned about her dad before as she got dressed. Best to play it safe, try to get on his good side. Did he have one? Gaige sure hoped he did. For Angel’s sake, at least.

Because as lonely was Gaige was feeling right now, Angel was probably crushed.

The redhead shook her head. Not the time to think about that.

Digging through her closet Gaige shoved aside the more punkish outfits in favor of the clothes extended family has sent her.

She pulled out box after box of clothes she’d barely even looked at.

Her mouth broke into a smile as a puffy yellow blouse fell out of the very first box. Oh, man, thank you Grannie Tabitha for not having any concept of my clothing preferences.

Digging through the other boxes didn’t yield anything useful though. She resigned herself to matching the goody two-shoes top with a black miniskirt. Probably not the best choice but innocuous enough.

She eventually waddled out of her room looking like a some sort of bumblebee cupcake.

Her own dad walked out at the same time, pitifully struggling to tie a bright yellow tie. She made electric green eye contact with him and they sized each other up before both of them started cracking up.

“Gee willikers, pop! We’re gonna have a swell time tonight, huh?” Gaige said, putting her hands on her hips and giving a little hop that made her skirt puff up.

He only laughed, combing down a stray piece of her bright orange hair, “It’ll only be for a little while, sweetie. We’ll just… be seeing how the other half lives. The slightly terrifying rich half. The man.”

She nodded, her and her dad had already discussed at length about how vital it was to be on their most non-anarchist behavior. They’d made a list of ‘do not discuss’ which included that time Gaige broke someone’s nose for making fun of Tiny Tina and the time her father had chained himself to a bulldozer to fight deforestation.

They hesitated before they opened their front door and walked over to their neighbors.

\- - -

Angel hadn’t eaten in two weeks.

At least, hadn’t really eaten. She’d managed to eat a handful of things here and there.

But she needed her dad to think she wasn’t.

Thankfully she’d had a habit of hiding food in her room but after a week it was gone. Not much had been there in the first place.

It was driving Jack up a wall that there really wasn’t anything he could do to stop this.

He’d tried to force her to eat, of course, but it hadn’t gone well. At best he’d managed to get her to swallow a couple bites of a sandwich and it had taken about an hour. Also she bit his hand pretty hard at one point.

She’d made the reason for her hunger strike incredibly frank. She wanted Gaige. She wanted her to come here, for her to go there, for them to go out on dates.

Jack, of course, hated everything about that.

But Angel was withering away.

\- - -

When the other door flung open both of the green eyed rebels forced themselves not to recoil.

A smile as fake as the skin on his ‘face’ greeted them, blue and green eyes practically boring a pair of matching holes into their skulls.

Despite being a good half a foot shorter than the clearly enraged CEO, Gaige’s father held his ground with a much less threatening smile and an extended hand, “You must be Angel’s father. I’m Gaige’s.

Through sheer will, he managed to not wince as his hand was absolutely crushed by Jack’s. Firm handshake was an understatement. Also probably inaccurate as there was no way he wasn’t purposefully trying to break the former hippie’s hand.

“Handsome Jack, absolutely a pleasure to meet you,” he spat, words absolutely dripping venom and sarcasm.

The handshake went on longer than necessary but eventually he released the father to turn his attention to the daughter. His mismatched glare got even darker.

Gaige couldn’t help but quietly yelp as her cheek was suddenly pinched. Hard.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see her own dad tense up as his hand curled into a fist.

They both restrained themselves though.

Jack’s eyes lit up, knowing now that neither of them was going to fight back although his words were still in that ice cold tone, “Heyyy, kiddo. Angel sure has missed you.”

\- - -

The inside of the rest of the house was nothing like the one room Gaige had been in.

The living room was like a terrifying shrine to the man they were currently following towards what they assumed would be the dining room.

They hoped that it would hopefully have less pictures of the masked man. Gaige wasn’t entirely sure she could choke down whatever food she was presented if she had hundreds of pictures of the man staring at her, instead of just the one living breathing one.

Jack opened a door on the other end, pointing almost accusatory for them to enter.

Gaige’s jaw and heart dropped as she laid eyes on Angel for the first time in two weeks.

Angel had always been a waif of a girl, of course, but that was nothing compared to now. She looked about twenty pounds lighter, face sunken in and eyes dark. They brightened as soon as she saw the other girl though. She faltered getting up but happily reached up her arms as Gaige ran over and threw her own around her girlfriend’s waist.

The two fathers couldn’t have had a more opposite reactions. Jack’s smile twisted down into a disgusted scowl but Gaige’s dad’s near frown gave way to a wide grin.

The girls finally separated after Gaige couldn’t handle blue and green eyes bearing down on her anymore.

Before Jack could make a move to seat Gaige on the opposite side of the table Angel pulled her down to sit next to her. He didn’t look happy about it, of course, but the redhead could see that all of his absolute disgust and anger was undercut by concern. Looking back at the now emaciated Angel it was pretty obvious why.

Gaige let her metal hand hook itself around Angel’s now terrifyingly thin one, pulling it over to rest on one of her legs.

God, she never could resist a little rebellion even as Jack kept his eyes locked on her.

Both of the neighbors nearly jumped out of their skin as a fifth person walked into the room, relaxing only when they realized it was just some random servant. He politely started carrying in their steak dinner, setting a plate in front of each of them.

Jack opened his mouth, probably to make some smart remark but it was completely cut off was Angel quickly stabbed her fork into the food. She didn’t even bother to cut it as she dragged the whole thing up to her mouth.

Half her father’s brain was desperately yelling at him to chastise her for acting like an animal but the other half was just happy she was finally eating again.

\- - -

The whole dinner proceeded awkwardly, especially since Angel wasn’t exactly participating as she continued to shovel in food. At least she calmed down after a while. Enough to cut her food at least. Gaige was mildly impressed by the fact the thin girl managed to put away two whole, massive steaks.

Gaige and her father politely answered Jack’s questions, ignoring the fact his needling interrogation was absolutely infuriating. They answered everything from boring surface questions to utterly invasive ones. It had taken particular restraint for the green eyed father not to explode as Jack kept asking things about his dead wife as if the fact he was raising Gaige alone was something to be looked down upon. They were both single fathers, he wanted to yell. Of course, he didn’t.

Luckily, neither of the neighbors were stupid. They knew not to mention certain aspects of Gaige’s relationship with Angel. Namely that she’d been sneaking into the house.

From what little Angel offered up between bites it became obvious that while she had owned up to going to the baseball games for Gaige, she had hid the fact she was also training with other Sirens there.

By the time the servant reappeared to take away the now empty plates Angel was nearly falling asleep on the table.

Before Jack could react Gaige cut him off, putting a hand on the now far too bony shoulder, “Hey, want me to carry you up to bed?”

She could feel the man on the other side of the table tense up. She didn’t bother looking at him.

Gaige instead carefully picked up Angel carefully, finding her depressingly light, and quickly absconding to upstairs. She knew she wouldn’t have long alone with her girlfriend but had questions.

Her own father, always surprisingly good at deception, managed to accost Jack into a polite conversation as he rapidly came up with excuses to keep the CEO captive.

\- - -

Once Angel was starting to curl under her sheets Gaige was silent for a second despite the urgency of the situation, “Are you… are you okay?”

Given her current state, the answer was obviously no.

But Angel nodded despite that, “Yeah… it was hell but now he’s afraid I’ll kill myself. Things will be… hopefully better. I told him if he didn’t let me keep seeing you I’d just starve myself. I mean, we’ll be up to our necks in guardians but we can go places together. Sorry about all the questions though.”

“S’okay, I mean dad is probably going to spend, like, twenty hour hours beating the shit out of a pillow when we get home. But if we can still be together, it’s worth it. Pretty fuckin’ sure he thinks so too.”

Angel smiled, “There’s a carnival next month… wanna go?”

“Hell yeah I want to do!”

There was a moment of peaceful silent between the two, looking into each other’s eyes with their fingers lightly entwined.

Heavy footsteps heading upstairs betrayed the fact Gaige’s father’s powers of distraction were limited. Before Jack could reach the room the redhead quickly kissed the dark haired girl before bouncing up.

Hands were still entwined as the agitated father approached the cracked open bedroom door.

“Well, either way. I’m glad you’re okay. Beautiful Angel,” Gaige said with a wink, enjoying watching her girlfriend embarrassedly pull the blanket over her face.

“Gaaaaaige! I told you not to call me that!” she said, laughing and kicking her legs a little.

“Too late! I’ll see you sometime soon, right?”

“Right. And don’t worry, I’ll try to get back to normal soon,” she said, patting at her own all too thin arm.

“Good. Nighty night!”

“Night!”

Gaige nearly collided with Jack who was standing a few feet outside the door, poorly pretending like he wasn’t listening. As he pulled the door shut behind her she felt a vague concern that he was going to shove her down the stairs.

He didn’t of course, just had one more accusatory question for her, “Beautiful Angel’s a bit corny a nickname, don’t you think? Why that?”

Gaige’s face went bright red, “Oh! Uh, well you’re ‘Handsome’ Jack so I figured she’d be ‘Beautiful’ Angel.”

Gaige watched Jack’s face lose its predatory edge for the first time since she’d stepped foot in the house. Apparently he actually really liked that. She supposed somewhere in his mind that it was a positive statement on himself. Or maybe just liked the idea that people saw himself in his daughter.

Whatever his reason for liking that, something twisted sharply in Gaige’s gut.

Apparently the only thing that felt worse than his scorn was his acceptance. She felt like she’d signed some sort of horrible contract.

Jack escorted her back downstairs to the relief of her father.

Gaige didn’t sleep much that night.


	8. Bueller? Bueller? …Bueller?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel and Gaige go to a carnival but they're saddled with a burden that rhymes with "Vugo Hasquez."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while, this was originally the story that this whole fic spawned from so it's essentially as long as a whole fanfic on its own. Almost 4k. That's a fuckin' lot for me, Cat "Short Chapter" Isacat.
> 
> This fic is going to be so long in general. There's still like three to five chapters left. Gotdang.

Things had gotten better. Arguably. Tensions were high and it was constantly precarious but arguably it was better.

Angel had found herself under much stricter observation. They couldn’t talk late into the night anymore, Jack would inevitably come in and feign concern as he put her to bed. Gaige’s blood still ran cold every time he saw them talking through the window, even though she knew he knew about it now. She didn’t like him knowing.

He never looked at Gaige much though. When he did she always found her brain desperately urging her to run. Despite the singular moment they’d had when he’d caught her nickname for his daughter he still wasn’t fond of her. Were he able to, Gaige didn’t doubt he’d whisk Angel away and they’d never see each other again. Or, you know, just wring the mechanic’s skinny little neck until the last glint of life left her big green eyes.

But he didn’t have the power to. At least not without Angel starving herself to death. Thusly, within the last month they spent tons of time together. Even though a carousel of guardians was always chasing after them.

Gaige knew most of them, although Angel still said there was one who was off on some sort of important mission right now. The one Angel only referred to as the ‘weird’ one. But ‘not in a bad way.’ Whatever that meant.

Rhys and his boyfriend were common. Despite the thin man’s high ambitions he mostly seemed to be used by Jack as an overpriced babysitter. If not for his daughter, then for something else he needed to not die and/or explode. Gaige liked them, they watched the girls carefully but were generally pretty amusing. With a little imagination she could just pretend Rhys was Angel’s big brother. Made the situation feel less weird.

Wilhelm was third most likely to chaperone. Bizarrely enough, Gaige had endeared herself to him. He’d clomped up to check on Angel when she was showing the pale girl her newest little bot. The cyborg’s advice on how to improve it was lengthy and probably the most she’d ever hear him say. Granted, he’d abruptly left after that but he’d stopped making sure her girlfriend’s curfew was enforced anymore. Took a lot more imagination but Gaige tried to think of him as Angel’s kinda incredibly scary but maybe slightly cool uncle.

But today? The day of the carnival they’d looked so forward to? Second most common guardian. The slimeball known as ‘Hugo Vasquez.’

Unlike Rhys and Wilhelm who could be convinced to look the other way, Vasquez was too busy trying to suck up to Jack. Angel said she’d caught him taking notes on their date once for snitching purposes. Ironically, if anything, it mostly just annoyed Jack.

Angel had reported to Gaige with a smile that she’d heard her dad mutter ‘snitches get stitches…’ under his breath after Vasquez dropped her off one night. He’d had a mile-long list of minor ‘infractions’ and while Jack wasn’t exactly happy they were holding hands and junk he didn’t want a detailed stool pidgeon report on it.

The two had thought that might be the end of Vasquez-sitting. But, unfortunately, everyone else was busy. Tonight of all nights.

The girls both cringed as the smarmy suited man put a hand on each of their shoulders, leading them away from Jack and towards his stupid car. What is it with men and cars? Why do they think they’re so great?

They tried to pretend he wasn’t staring at them in his rearview mirror, just waiting for something to report back to Jack. They remained far too far apart, fingers just barely interlaced.

As the sun set the bright flashing lights of the carnival washed over them.

It seemed like Vasquez was already pulling the door open before the car stopped.

The two girls slid out of the car. Gaige was briefly distracted by the sheer chaos that was just past the gate until she looked back at the man buying them tickets. Augh.

Before she could say anything Angel was wrapped around her arm and at her ear, “Hey Gaige…”

The mischievous tones in her voice made the redhead’s mouth twist into a lopsided grin.

They looked at each other then at the currently unaware assistant being handed a far-too-short string of tickets.

Metal hand grabbed the blue-marked one and the girls ran off into the fray as quietly as possible. Not that it was necessary, the carnival was obnoxiously loud. Within seconds Vasquez was out of sight and out of mind.

The redhead realized one other issue though, voicing it through panting breaths as they hid behind a sign, “Hey, uh, Angel? Soooo we’re free now but how are we going to get on any rides?”

She didn’t expect the answer to come in the form of a black credit card with a golden ‘H” shining on it. The name ‘Jack’ glinted on it proudly.

“Hooooolllyy shit did you steal your dad’s credit card?!” Gaige yelled, not entirely sure if she was impressed or concerned. Right now ‘impressed’ was making a convincing case, though.

Angel shook her head, gesturing in the vague direction of the parking lot, “No, no. You saw how bad my last act of rebellion went. He knew Vasquez wasn’t going to pay for sh… for enough. So he gave me this for tonight.”

She handed it to her awestruck girlfriend who was currently restraining her urges to see exactly how much money was on a CEO’s credit card. Hell, they could buy a plane ticket- no, the whole plane! And be out of the country in a heartbeat.

Gaige snapped out of it though, looking up at Angel’s excited face, “You… look, I know you’re not like me and you don’t like to fight the system, really. You kindaaa don’t seem crazy about the idea of rebelling again or at least the consequences and we kinda just, you know, ditched your guardian.”

The black haired girl looked a bit uncertainly at the direction they’d last seen Vasquez, “I might not be like you but I’d rather be. But I have a plan. Don’t worry about it. For now, it’s just you, me and a slightly intimidating amount of money.”

One yellow painted nail tapped gently on the card in Gaige’s hand. It was all the convincing the redhead needed before excited dragging her girlfriend to one of the many, many ticket stands.

Within no time they had more tickets than they could have possibly used in one night as well as two bright red fast passes. They were overpriced as hell but hey, they were pretty sure it was nothing but a drop in the bucket to Jack.

Gaige excitedly waved the fistful of paper slips with a wink, “Alright, Beautiful, which ride do you want to ride first?”

With zero hesitation Angel pointed excitedly at the gigantic carousel in the center.

Gaige would have rathered they ride one of the faster, more exciting rides but she could never say no to those big baby blues.

The thin girl barely hesitated in picking a horse. She didn’t think much of it but Gaige couldn’t help but notice her choice. Angel had made a beeline to the golden yellow horse with pitch black accents, excitedly swinging a leg over it.

But as she happily gripped the reins Gaige decided not to say anything. Probably better that Angel not realize how conditioned she was to pick anything and everything related to her dad.

The mechanic hopped onto the horse next to her, a bright electric blue colt with streaks of yellow travelling down its mane and tail. She laughed as Angel extended a hand out to her. Her soft smile widened as her hand was caged by Gaige’s metal one.

The ride was corny and it was kind of hard to ignore the fact the two teenagers were completely flanked by children and their parents but Angel sure seemed to enjoy it. And if she was happy, Gaige was happy.

As the ride came to a stop they slunk off it, sneaking through the crowd as they thought they saw a certain assistant nearly running trying to find them.

A sudden manic glint caught Gaige’s eye as she excitedly pulled her girlfriend towards something a little more her speed. Their city’s combination haunted house was legendary. They didn’t wait long though, fast passes and all. They were shuffled to one of the several entrances like a happy little herd of sheep.

Right before they were ushered in by a man dressed as the grim reaper, Gaige saw a pair of familiar faces. The other entrance. They’d meet them in the middle.

As soon as they entered Gaige was off, hand latched around Angel’s confused wrist as she giggled mischievously. They zipped past the scarers, tearing through the maze until they abruptly stopped.

“Gaige, what are-” Angel started before she was cut off by a metal claw gently covering her mouth as the human one pointed at the two women just barely visible around the corner.

Lilith looked fairly nonplussed by the whole ordeal, not even flinching as people in masks flung themselves at her. The whole ‘no touch’ policy really took the scary out of it for her. Maya, on the other hand, was latched tightly to her girlfriend’s arm and doing her best to not look scared. She was dead silent but even in the low light they could see her eyes were wide.

The redhead let go of her own girlfriend to Angel’s immediate panic. She expertly blended in with the performers, spreading a wave of confusion through them. Creeping up behind the unaware Sirens her smile grew wide. Unfortunately for the two women, Gaige did not subscribe to the no-touch policy.

With a loud “BOO!” Gaige clapped her hands over Lilith’s eyes from behind.

The domino effect of panicked Sirens was astounding.

In half a second Gaige found herself lifted off the ground, a now screaming Maya holding out a hand to keep the teenager levitated off the ground as she looked around maniacally for another target. Lilith had just seemingly disappeared.

A different worker snuck up on Angel a bright flash filled the room as wings suddenly appeared on her back. It was immediately mimicked by Maya as well. Lilith made a sudden winged reappearance as well.

Chaos reigned supreme as Gaige laughed, kicking her legs excitedly as she remained suspended in the air. She yelled “ANARCHY!!” proudly as the Sirens slowly came to their senses as lights suddenly flooded the room.

The four women found themselves being escorted out as the workers slapped up a hastily created sign bearing the words “NO SIRENS ALLOWED.”

Eventually Angel joined in the giggling as they were glared down by the two slightly older women.

“Well… that’s another place we’re banned from,“ Maya said calmly, regarding the sign as if this was as normal an occurrence to them as going grocery shopping. Speaking of, they were also banned from several grocery stores. Unrelated reasons.

Before they could further reprimand the teenagers they were being used as human shields while they watched a panicked Hyperion stooge run past.

Lilith looked down at the unrepentant smile on Gaige’s face.

“I’m not bailing you out when Jack finds out,” she said, jabbing her pointer finger into the middle of Gaige’s forehead.

Gaige batted it away, nodding at Angel, “Well, she says she has a plan.”

Maya looked a bit doubtful, “If you say so…”

Either way the two younger girls bounced away, waving back at the two Sirens.

Before Angel could protest Gaige pulled her into the games area and gestured with a wide arc to the games, “Alright, pick literally any prize here and I, the greatest game winner in the history of winning games, will win it for you!”

They both ignored the fact Angel’s father was footing the bill.

The thin girl made a theatrical loop around the area before settling on a cutesy patchwork bunny by the ring toss, “That one. It makes me think of you.”

Gaige’s face went bright red but she nodded anyways, stepping forward with pride on her face. She bought the first set of rings, making a face at the worker who told her not to use her robotic arm as it would count as cheating.

“I wasn’t even! I’m not left handed, bigot,” she stuck out her tongue at him.

He rolled his eyes and sat back down on his stool.

The first set of rings all clinked off the edge of the goal. So did the second. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. Look, Gaige is not specced for accuracy. She probably took the Anarchy perk and is in hell right now.

With each successive failure she was getting more and more worked up, eventually throttling the ring she was holding “Goddamn it! Fucking go where I throw you!”

The quiet snerk that came from the worker only further fueled her rage.

A mistake, as she violently chucked the ring at his head.

Angel decided maybe it was time to finally intervene.

The worker dodged the ring deftly as it ricocheted back towards the targets. Angel very quietly muttered ‘phase shift’ as the ring switched trajectory and landed squarely on the winning peg.

She feigned surprise along with her girlfriend and the worker as the three gawked at the victory.

Gaige immediately started yelling and jumping, pointing at the rabbit for her girlfriend, “HA! Of course, I’m freaking AMAZING how could I NOT win?! Give me the rabbit, carny slave!!”

The look on the worker’s face was infuriated as he grabbed the stuffed bunny and held it out to the redhead who took it happily, presenting it to her girlfriend with a deep bow, “For my lady, I present to you, Lord Hippity Hoppers, the Duke of Carrots and Asskicking.”

Angel took it, returning the bow before standing up and hugging it tightly, “I’ll treasure it forever.”

Gaige’s face went red but it was nothing compared to the blush that arose at Angel’s next ride selection.

The Tunnel of Love.

It was new this year and, hell, Gaige didn’t even know they were a real thing and not just a cheap plot device used by subpar writers to put characters into contrived situations. Wait... shit…

But now she found herself being pulled towards the nearly empty ride but her girlfriend was still far too excited to say ‘no’ to. As they spent more time together, that word became harder to say. At least the quiet girl never asked for much.

They were instantly ushered into the dim ride which had only one other couple on it. Or at least they assumed it was a couple. They could only see one person’s head over the high back of the chair. They hoped he wasn’t alone, at least. That’d just be sad.

They slid into the seat all the way in the back, as far away as possible from the other couple. Or possibly the sad guy riding the Tunnel of Love alone. Thankfully as the ride started they could hear two voices, one low who was making some sarcastic comment about the ride and the other was higher and reprimanding them for their cynicism.

Gaige turned her attention from the bickering couple to her girlfriend as she felt her nuzzle into her arm. She was immediately grateful that Angel was on her right. Roboarm had some downsides including ‘I can’t feel shit in it.’

They eventually turned their attentions the cheesy decorations of the ride. It looked like a mid-February party store vomited everywhere.

Gaige laughed and pointed at one of the hideously corny cupids. It’s cheeks were bright red and it’s wings looked too small to carry it’s fat little body. Gaige whispered to her girlfriend, “That’s you.”

Angel stifled a laugh that culminated in a little snort. Her face went bright red, not unlike the repulsively saccharine cherub her girlfriend just pointed at.

Gaige poked a finger into her girlfriend’s cheek, “See? Totally accurate.”

Angel bapped her on the metal arm with a soft clang before looking around eagerly. She pointed at a blindingly bright pink rabbit that was contorted into a mockery of embarrassment at being handed a bouquet of roses from another sickeningly mawkish cupid, “That’s you.”

Another chorus of giggles as the almost depressingly short ride came to an end. The other couple didn’t sound like they were having nearly as much fun and from what they could see at the back it looked like they were shoving at each other.

Gaige pointed at them with a smile and whispered in her ear, “Hey, old married couple or soon to be divorced newlyweds?”

“Well, they don’t sound old but I’ll still hope for the first,” Angel said, squinting at what she could see of the other couple.

As the ride came to a slow stop they got their answer.

Rhys caught Vaughn in a headlock as he was dragging him off the ride. They could properly hear them now, the tall one complaining that his boyfriend hadn’t taken the ride seriously and the short one still muttering about how corny and stupid it was.

The girls ducked down, easily hidden by the tall seats. The chances of Rhys telling on them was slim but they figured better safe than sorry. The less people that know Jack knowing about this the better. They waited a few seconds before creeping out themselves.

Their hearts skipped in unison as they heard the familiar and unmistakable voice of Hugo Vasquez.

They pressed themselves against an alcove by the exit, Angel instinctively pulling Gaige into her chest and shielding her girlfriend’s head. The redhead wasn’t even able to appreciate how comforting this should be as the voice boomed on.

It became quickly obvious he hadn’t seen them but he sure did sound angry. After a second Angel carefully leaned over to peek around the corner.

She instantly recoiled back to her hiding spot, whispering to Gaige, “He’s arguing with Rhys. I think… I think he may be distracted enough that we can book it.”

Gaige chanced a look of her own, reluctantly pulling away from her girlfriend’s chest. Vasquez was standing awkwardly close to Rhys as they yelled at each other, Vaughn stood off to the side. His contribution to this fight was an ice cold glare boring into the black haired man’s skull.

She caught some stray words that gave her a pretty good picture of the situation. Her own name, Angel’s name and accusations of the two company men covering for them. And denial of those claims, of course.

They should probably haul ass before the men got in trouble for that.

Gaige wrapped a metal claw around Angel’s thin wrist with little warning as she took off, trying to integrate into the crowd before they could be seen.

While they quickly dissipated into the crowd a look back told Angel that it was too late. Vazquez had already seen them. However, in the split second before they were engulfed by the crowd she saw Rhys absolutely clothesline him with his metal arm.

It was satisfying, watching the man drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

All three of the men were out of sight in a second as Gaige expertly navigated the crowd, Angel gently gliding along after her guide.

They evaded capture for a long time after that. They had the time of their life as they rode the rides as many times as they wanted, devoured disgusting amounts of junk food and as the fireworks were about to start Gaige knew how she wanted this perfect night to end. Everyone loves the Ferris Wheel.

The redhead timed it perfectly, smiling as the fireworks started going off quicker and quicker as the absolutely massive ride started to turn. It built into a crescendo as they rose to the top, the beautiful blasts highlighting Angel’s angular face with a kaleidoscope of colors.

Angel looked up at it in wonder as their cart reached the top and stopped as it did for the rest. She’d been ten-years-old the last time she’d seen a fireworks show in person, without a pane of glass in the way. The explosions were breathtaking, even though she could hear someone below them very, very loudly making guitar noises with his mouth.

As bright shades of yellow lit up Angel’s face she jumped at the sudden weight of Gaige letting herself collapse against her girlfriend, mismatched arms wrapping around her tightly.

She smiled widely as red hair was nuzzled aggressively against her neck. She returned the hug as best she could but wasn’t being presented with a whole lot of wiggle room. She didn’t mind though. Far from didn’t mind.

Angel did mind, however, that she could see Vasquez at the bottom of the ride, glaring at them.

She decided to ignore that for now, letting Gaige nuzzle against her as the fireworks exploded above.

As the finale came to it’s end their cart still lingered at the top of the ferris wheel.

A sudden tension flushed through Gaige. Keeping her girlfriend’s hand stiffen around her own thin arm she figured the redhead had gotten a glimpse of the agitated stuffed shirt below.

Angel was wrong though.

She could barely hear Gaige over the din of the crowd below as she whispered in her ear, “Hey, Angel?”

“Yeah?” she said, leaning her head a bit closer to catch her girlfriend’s muffled words.

There was a silence, if you could call it that through the noise of carnival below. Like the man from before now persistently yelling for more explosions.

The ride violently jolted to life again, shocking Gaige into suddenly yelling her confession, “I LOVE YOU!”

Between the sudden drop and her girlfriend’s scream Angel was shell shocked for a second. She finally looked down at the redhead who had jumped back to clap her mismatched hands over her mouth.

They stared at each other in silence for a while, not unlike the first night they met, before Angel started giggling and pulled the still rigid Gaige over to her so she could plant a kiss on her lips. She held it for a second, just long enough for her girlfriend to relax against her once more before answering.

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As yes, all the elements of romance. The glistening lights and sounds of a carnival, snuggling and kissing, confessions of love, pointing at ugly things and saying they're your girlfriend. Oh and, of course, Mister Torgue yelling in the distance. No romantic evening is complete without that.


	9. Playing Pretend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaige finds herself invited to Angel's "First Sleepover" but it comes at the cost of a bizarre chaperone.

Angel held that night at the carnival fondly in heart.

Even now, a week later, she fell asleep with a smile on her face thinking about it.

Her plan had made Gaige both proud and worried for her.

They’d been grabbed by Vasquez the second they got off the ferris wheel. He was enraged but at a complete loss of words for a while before uttering a few simple sentences, “Get in the car. You’re going home. I’m telling your dad.”

A lovely bit of luck brought more credibility to her story. Over Vasquez’s shoulder she saw they were being watched by Rhys and Vaughn, the former holding up his phone. Angel would put good money on him taking a picture of the situation. Guardians weren’t supposed to touch her, let alone grab her like a stray dog.

The second their guardian released the thin girl she immediately hit her shoulder as hard on the edge of a nearby stand as she could.

Of course, both the man and her girlfriend panicked immediately as the teenager pointed proudly at the bruise quickly forming on her shoulder with an oddly serene smile, “I didn’t run off. Right?”

Vasquez’ jaw dropped. He followed her with his eyes as she walked past him, almost skipping, to say something to Rhys. Neither Vasquez or Gaige followed her, still frozen for a second before making eye contact. The teenanger just shrugged and mumbled a super ingenuine apology.

They went back to looking at Angel who seemed to be trying to convince the tall, thin cyborg of something. He looked uncertain, looking at her worriedly then up at Vasquez coldly. Eventually whatever she was asking he relented.

Everyone involved looked surprised as Gaige hugged Rhys tightly around the waist before bouncing back so they could leave. She’d playfully tugged off her girlfriend’s red jacket and wrapped it around herself to cover up her new bruise.

Angel had explained later that she’d convinced Rhys to keep the picture as blackmail rather than outright show Jack. He really would have preferred the latter but eventually come to the conclusion that Angel’s favor was better than petty revenge.

The mechanic wasn’t sure how to feel about her girlfriend’s newfound courage.

I mean, she was happy Angel was feeling more confident, of course. The whole manipulative streak was a bit worrisome though.

Angel herself thought nothing of it, lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling. She’d taken care to cover her shoulder since that day even though the bruise had already faded.

She’d kept the jacket though.

It was currently swaddled around the bunny Gaige had won for her.

Angel smiled softly one more time before drifting off to sleep, clutching the bundle to her chest.

\---

A few days later Gaige found herself being invited to come to “Angel’s First Sleepover”.

Of course. It wasn’t really. We covered that in chapter five. This is just what Jack THINKS is Angel's first sleepover.

She accepted, of course, but was baffled by the weird look on Angel’s face. She looked… uncomfortable with the situation. Gaige’s face matched when Angel explained that it was going to be chaperoned by Jack himself.

The redhead briefly considered recanting her accepting of the invitation but the pleading look on Angel’s face prevented her.

She decided not to tell that particular detail to her own father.

\---

Gaige arrived promptly on time, having picked one of her nicer sets of pajamas. A very subjective word in this case as she was wearing red capris with little black bunnies on them and a matching tank top. Maybe there was a small hole in the pants.

She forced herself not to flinch when Jack flung the door open with a wide, affected smile, “Heyyy, kiddo! Get in here, Angel is SUPER excited for this.”

Gaige was a bit baffled as he ruffled her hair. Something was off. She considered making up an excuse and running back home. She didn’t have time to though as Jack clapped a hand on her shoulder and steered her inside.

To her immediate discomfort it seemed like they were going to be stuck in the living room. Remember the living room? Uncomfortable number of pictures of Jack? Nothing like a million pictures of your girlfriend's creepy dad staring at you while you try to sleep.

Seeing the real Jack amongst all all the fakes was jarring. He approached the stairs as Angel padded down them, neatly plucking her off the stairs in a hug before placing her down by Gaige.

The redhead looked confusedly at her girlfriend who was scrutinizing her dad. She watched something click into place but had no opportunity to ask as Jack interrupted them by clapping his hands together with a thunderous crack, “Okay boys and gi- well, okay maybe just girls. Are you ready to have some fun?”

Gaige tried not to look repulsed by the far too wide smile on his face which was proving to be quite a feat. It was even more unnervingly fake than usual.

She became acutely aware of the fact she was staring a bit slack jawed at him when her girlfriend suddenly chirped up, “Yesterday you said we could give you a makeover, remember?”

Both Gaige and Jack looked at her like she was crazy.

The man jerked back to attention quickly though, the gears in his brain visibly whirring, “Uh… oh! Oh yeah, you, uh. Mentioned you wanted to do that.”

Angel answered without flinching, “Yeah, at breakfast. Remember?”

He nodded but still had a confused look twisting his face. Mask. Whatever.

Angel held up a finger before prancing back up to her room, leaving her girlfriend and dad sitting awkwardly on the couch.

The awkward, inverted staring contest continued for almost the entirely of Angel’s absence. Both Jack and Gaige adamantly not making eye contact. Although in a roundabout way that was a bit impossible for the teenager as there were far too many pictures of the man around the room.

Just as her eyes managed to fall on one of the few pictures including someone else, Jack spoke, “So Paige, how’s, uh, how’s school?”

Gaige tore her eyes away from the picture with the pretty but blood splattered cowgirl and looked at him like he was an alien. She could have sworn she saw him recoil for half a second before recovering back to that creepy forced smile.

She knew she wasn’t imagining him slowly leaning away from her as she examined his face harshly.

The teenager finally tersely answered, “I’m getting straight A’s so. Good. It’s going good.”

Tension broke as she dropped her gaze back to the picture on the table, carefully picking it up. She pointed at the woman pictured and asked him, “Your girlfriend?”

“That’s Nisha and yeah, she’s my…”

He was cut off mid sentence by Angel coming down the stairs and Gaige couldn’t help but notice he seemed almost grateful that he didn’t have to answer more questions about the cowgirl. Weird.

Gaige wondered if it was too late to try to get out of this.

The answer seemed to be ‘no’ as Angel handed her the makeup box and instructed her to pick her favorites.

As weird as this situation was Gaige was still afraid of the man whose masked face was finally starting to show signs of annoyance. It was the redhead’s turn to be scrutinized by the man as she started to rake her metal hand through the contents of the box.

Angel was weirdly undeterred by her dad’s furrowed brow as she roughly grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled it back into a hair tie. She didn’t even jump as the man let out a strangled noise of pain and barked, “ANGEL!”

Gaige shielded herself with the lid of the box, bracing herself for a explosion that never came. She stared at her girlfriend from behind her weak cover in vague horror as the Siren ignored it and pulled another fist of brown and grey hair into a second tie. Had Angel lost her mind?

“Don’t be such a baby, dad. That’s my job,” she said in a sickly sweet voice before joining Gaige on Jack’s other side.

He said nothing and his expression was an odd chimera of about ten different emotions, none of them good. Gaige herself couldn’t decide on one for her own face as Angel plucked the yellow eyeshadow from the box on her lap. She bravely leaned towards her dad and started reach towards his face with it.

He finally grabbed her wrist, stopping her easily with a look of irritation flashing dangerously across his unnatural features, “Okay, Angel. That’s enough. The mask is a bitch to clean.”

Gaige’s eyes flicked back and forth between the clear warning signs on Jack to the weirdly tranquil and god, almost PLAYFUL look on Angel’s face. The redhead gasped slightly after a few tense moments, realizing she’d stopped breathing.

She launched herself off that, deciding desperately to try to diffuse this situation, “Hey! Angel, I’m like super super super hungry why don’t we get like… a pizza or something?”

The father and daughter trapped in a deadlock didn’t even look at her.

Angel’s voice cracked the silence, “You’re not my real dad.”

Gaige’s jaw dropped, completely dumbstruck. Was Gaige adopted? Why didn’t she say anything before? What the fuck?

She looked to the two, hoping for an answer and was only getting more questions.

Jack looked distraught, a look completely foreign to his angular features before answering weakly, “What are you… I… I’m Jack. The real one.”

“You know I hate it when you do this,” Angel said, her own face mirroring her father’s usual demeanor.

It was like watching a star implode in on itself. In what seemed like a heartbeat Jack seemed to double in on himself, the formerly fearsome man crumpling down to half his size. Metaphorically, at least. It was hard for Gaige to reconcile that the man sitting in front of her was the same monster who kept her girlfriend a captive in her own home.

“Angel...” he said in an unfamiliar voice, more like a whine than anything else.

Gaige jumped as Angel finally trained her sights on her, gesturing to the man who looked a bit defeated, “Remember how I said there was one last guardian but it was kind of a weird one?”

“Uh… yeah?”

“That’s not my dad,” she said, pointing accusingly at the man who halfhearted muttered something about being the real Jack. Gaige merely gawked at the man giving Angel a hangdog look as he pulled out the crude pigtails she’d jerked his hair into.

“You didn’t have to pull my hair,” he griped in the same quiet voice, obediently dropping the hair ties into Angel’s outreached hand.

Gaige watched in a weird sort of awe as Angel smoothed back down the pseudo-Jack’s hair, “Sorry. Kind of. You know it weirds me out when you try to trick me. You think I can’t tell when I’m not looking at my own father?”

“He told me to,” the man offered weakly, fiddling with the watch on his wrist to avoid eye contact, “He didn’t want you to know he wasn’t going to be here. He thought you’d be disappointed.”

Had that sentiment come from a normal dad, it would have been sweet. But coming from Jack? Not so much.

Angel finally addressed the question that must have been buzzing aggressively around her girlfriend’s head. She put a hand on the man’s shoulder, addressing Gaige, “I’m… sure you’re confused. This is Timothy Lawrence. I’ll explain it better over dinner, okay?”


	10. Science Unfair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaige starts to get more serious about her robotics in hopes of providing a better life for Angel as her eighteenth birthday approaches.

Who the hell does Jack think he is, having a body double?

That question buzzed around Gaige’s mind for the next month.

The rest of the sleepover was better, mainly because after explaining the weird situation with this “Timothy” guy he was content to leave them alone.

They’d seen him several times since, as Jack had temporarily called him back from whatever mission he’d sent the poor bastard out on. Gaige had asked, of course, but he just looked uncomfortable and refused to say anything.

She felt pretty bad for the guy so she just decided to quietly ignore the fact he’d accidentally revealed too much stating that ‘he couldn’t tell her WHO he was looking for.’

Jack seemed to be trying to squeeze as much babysitting out of Timothy before sending him away again. It became a weird guessing game for Gaige. Is it Jack? Is it Timothy? Frankly it was a dangerous game and the redhead hated it.

For Angel, it was significantly easier. Her girlfriend had asked her how to tell but the Siren cryptically insisted that ‘she just could.’’

However, Timothy disappeared as soon as he’d appeared. Angel and Gaige’s knowledge of the situation was limited but they’d caught Jack’s screams from downstairs. Something about how the doppelganger had found whatever the CEO had sent him after but had promptly ran away with it.

Gaige had other things on her mind though as Angel’s eighteenth birthday quickly approached. As time wore on she became more serious about her robotics. She would have been embarrassed to say it but she wanted to be able to, well, provide for Angel when they got her out of Jack’s clutches. She didn’t want them to have to live with her own father forever and her girlfriend had very little real life experience. Gaige imagined Angel’d be a little more like housewife.

Huh. That’s cute. A little housewife of her own.

Gaige jumped back. Oh no, I am not the suburban-white-fence-two-point-five-kids type. She felt like smacking herself for even thinking that. In fact, she did. Only human hand though, that thinking isn’t metal-claw-slap worthy.

She’d started asking more about what Angel’s dad actually did as well.

“So… it’s a gun company?” Gaige asked as Angel struggled to summarize the company’s ventures.

“Yes and no, they make other things too. The biggest thing they do is… have you ever heard a vault?” she said, arching her thin fingers into an upside down V.

Gaige nodded, “Yeah they’re uh, weird alien things, right? Treasure, power, blah blah blah? Sound kinda extremely kickass. Why? Does he do that?”

Angel nodded but answered a bit conflicted, “Kind of? He doesn't do it himself but his company does it for him pretty much.”

“Soooo he's involved in the lamest way possible?”

Angel looked to her shut door with a bit of a panic before allowing herself to giggle and nod. It only continued as Gaige excitedly put a foot up on her desk, lifting a wrench up like a sword before pointing through the window at her girlfriend, “Now I'll tell you how I'D do it. With my own two hands, bust open that vault, kick the bad guy's ass and rescue the girl!”

“Who are the bad guy and the girl? Where did they come from?”

“I don't know. There's just always a bad guy. And a girl. Look, maybe I didn't think that sentence through. Maybe the bad guy’s your dad, maybe the girl is you. Either way, I wouldn’t be sitting in a cushy office. I’d be all up in the action!”

Angel had no doubt that her girlfriend would be the star. She just didn’t know that it was something always destined to be. She had even less idea that the robot her girlfriend had started to summon with her metallic left hand would be the harbinger of that fate.

Angel got her first look at the Mechanized Anti-Bully Deterrent Test as Gaige continued to showboat. Project DT.

Gaige had also recently struck up a rivalry with one of her classmates, a horrible rich girl named Marcie.

Although it didn’t sour her overall opinion of her girlfriend, Angel was certainly getting tired of hearing the redhead’s tirades against the other girl. ‘She made fun of my project!’ ‘She copied off my test!’ ‘She gave me a funny look in the lunch line!’

She did like the enthusiasm it brought to Gaige though. Bright green eyes dazzled in the sunlight as Angel watched the girl’s robot absolutely destroy the training dummies she’d set up. It was always immediately followed by the girl excitedly running around it, zealously praising it.

Her father liked it significantly less. Jack didn’t like the concept of a robot he didn’t personally control being within arm’s reach of his daughter. And Project DT had some long arms.

He was unaware of his assistants’ help with it as well. He wouldn’t exactly be happy with Wilhelm if he’d known the man’s surprisingly willing help one lazy afternoon. Gaige certainly would have figured out the levitation sooner or later but the gruff man’s assistance certainly sped up the process.

It became slowly harder for Angel to convince her father to let her out of the house with that hefty metal monstrosity floating around next door. It wasn’t hard to convince him that a science fair couldn’t possibly be dangerous.

But we’ve all played or watched someone play Borderlands 2, presumably with knowledge of Gaige’s background so, uh, you guys know roughly where this is headed.

It was surreal for Angel to walk through the doors of an actual real life high school.

As she hung off the metal arm of her girlfriend she couldn’t help but notice exactly how many eyes were following them around the room. When they finally reached Gaige’s booth Angel looked around.

Rhys and Vaughn had already wandered off to go look at the other kids’ projects. From what she’d caught as they’d walked away they seemed to be reminiscing about their own time as teenagers.

Angel stuck close to Gaige though, silent paranoia winning out against gnawing curiosity.

Plus… the stares.

Eventually her leaned in close as the mechanic started setting up the display, “Uhm, Gaige? Why is… why is everyone looking at me?”

“I’unno. ‘Cause you’re the cutest girl in the room and they’re in awe of your beauty?”

Angel tightened her grip on her girlfriend’s thin arm, “Gaige…”

“Okay so maybe I talk about you sometimes. A lot of the time. And maybe, just maybe kinda, everyone didn’t believe you exist. But now you’re, you know. Here. Existing. With me,” Gaige babbled on, carefully avoiding the baby blues of her girlfriend along with the rainbow of curious eyes ogling them from every direction.

“Why wouldn’t they believe I’m real?” she said, scanning across the crowd as she watched the other teenagers hastily looking away. Their projects must have their attention all of a sudden, surely.

“I’m not… I don’t…” Gaige started a few times, fiddling with her arm to make sure everything was in working order, “I’m not popular, Angel. And I come to school talking about how there’s this gorgeous girl next door who just happens to be home schooled and not ever leave her house or anything. Plus nobody from my school is in the Firehawks! Those’re mostly girls from a private school Maya teaches at.”

Angel had honestly spent quite a bit of time thinking about the unusual circumstance of their meeting. Like something out of a corny teenage movie. Of course it sounded improbable from the outside.

Well, if they were going to stare…

Gaige jumped as bony arms wrapped around her waist before pulling her back against her stomach, pointy chin burying into her bright copper hair.

Pointed stares turned into a wave of mumbling as the crowd marvelled at the fact Gaige’s fairytale girlfriend was real and just as cute and lovey dovey as the nerdy girl had bragged. They thought this would be the highlight of the evening.

They were wrong.

Gaige flexed her robotic arm into a claw, her happiness split evenly between the robot that sprung into existence in front of her and the girl hanging off her back.

“Isn’t that just adorable?” hissed a chilly voice behind them.

The girlfriends turned in unison and Angel felt Gaige turn into a tensed up statue of pure hatred in a heartbeat.

Before them stood a blonde girl, flanked by a couple of fashionable lackeys.

The cyborg girl snapped back instantly, hands grabbing Angel’s forearms protectively, “Hell yeah she is. Jealous, Marcie?”

A sneer crossed the rich girl’s face, “I meant the robot, loser.”

Angel found herself almost accidentally shoved off as Gaige suddenly straightened up with an expert smirk on her face, “Won’t be able to call me that when I win the science fair and shove your snooty turned up nose all up in it. Your failure, I mean.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that. Frankly, I’m surprised your girlfriend’s even real, let alone your robot,” Marcie said, addressing the still placid Angel.

“Oh yeah, she’s real. Unlike your chances of not sucking forever and always. An’ she’s got an even richer dad than yours so. Neener-neener,” Gaige said victoriously. If her girlfriend had to live with her douchebag dad for another couple months until her eighteenth they might as well use the last of that card up.

Marcie seemed intrigued by this, ignoring her rival to focus on her, “And your dad is?”

Angel forced herself not to recoil, much less fond of tossing her dad’s name around than her significant other, “Handsome Jack. Hyperion CEO.”

The changes on Marcie’s face were instantaneous as she extended a hand with a practiced smile, “I’m Marcie, Marcie Halloway.”

The gesture went unreturned, twisting into awkwardness as Angel stared unflinchingly at the girl as she tightened her grip on Gaige’s shoulders. The cocky look spreading across the redhead’s face was absolutely punch-worthy. Angel always loved that look, glad to be the source of it this time.

Marcie finally broke her attempt with a dramatic snap of her fingers. Gaige was spared the embarrassment of jumping back by the virtue of her girlfriend’s death grip and rock steady, unwavering stance.

But all of that was for naught as her face betrayed her emotions.

At the snap something all too familiar started materializing behind the blonde girl.

Once again we have Angel’s surprising upper body strength to thank for Gaige not giving in to her knee jerk reactions.

But the redhead strained against her immediately at the sight of a glistening and gaudy version of her own Project DT. All eyes were on them again as Gaige started yelling, “OH MY GOD! YOU RIPPED OFF MY DESIGN!”

Marcie only laughed as Gaige struggled to point at DT, nearly being lifted off the ground by Angel as the rich girl spoke, “Uhm, ripped off would imply it was crappier. I didn’t rip you off, I improved on your shitty idea. The police force is already ready to buy a whole batch of my Crime Buster Bots when I win the science fair.”

Gaige eventually managed to struggle free of her girlfriend’s grasp to stomp towards her rival, hatred turning her bright green eyes into beacons of pure malice as she sputtered muddled threats in a blind rage, gesturing violently at Marcie.

Before a fight could break out Angel put herself between the two, facing away from Marcie as she addressed the small ball of pure loathing, “It’s not worth it, Gaige. Just… just let your robot speak for himself in the competition.”

This didn’t seem to calm Gaige much as she tried to reach around Angel to yell right in Marcie’s stupid face. The rich girl seemed to have already forgotten who the pale girl’s father was as she delivered a hard shove right into her back, sending her and her girlfriend toppling to the floor in a mess of limbs.

Frankly, it was probably a mercy when the DT Project killed her instantaneously.

Sure her entrails were currently raining down over the gymnasium but if she wasn’t already dead she would have had Handsome Jack coming after her with a vengeance.

His daughter got the brunt of it nonetheless though, her entire back splattered with blood and Unidentified Flayed Organs. She lay there in shock over Gaige who was looking up at her bloodied science fair project in sheer awe.

Who knows how long the two girls would have stayed like that as Rhys ran over, absolutely screaming. He barely calmed down as he pulled Angel to her feet, relieved that she was evidently physically unharmed but knowing that Jack wasn’t going to be happy about this.

He didn’t even bother to address Gaige as he half-dragged Angel out of the building, Vaughn running out after them.

As the screams of their classmates echoed in the gymnasium Gaige found herself flipped over as handcuffs clicked tightly around her wrists.

Her bright green eyes followed Angel as she was pulled away, disappearing out the doors to the parking lot.

A dark place in her heart wondered if she’d ever see her girlfriend ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn't think we'd get away from exploding Marcie, did you?


	11. Birthday Bashed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaige is in jail and Angel doesn't really know where she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working double time to get this story all wrapped up with a bow. I know how I want it all to go, it's just a matter of getting the whole thing typed out. I wish I could just project my thoughts directly into my computer, cut out the middle man that is my tiny baby hands. :P

The next two months were unbelievably tumultuous for both the girls in different but equally terrifying ways.

Angel had begged Rhys and Vaughn not to tell her dad. They’d considered it at first, bringing her back to their own apartment so she could shower off Marcie’s remains. No bloodstains on Jack’s carpet, no proof. But as the two men sat on the couch it became immediately obvious they could absolutely not hide this from their boss.

Gaige’s face was plastered all over every available news station. More specifically her mugshot. Red hair hung limply around her devastated face as chipper reporters told the grim tale of the poor innocent exploding heiress and the dastardly jealous antisocial mechanic.

Jack knew Angel had been there. There was no way Rhys was going to chance lying about something so obvious to him.

The girl couldn’t hear their conversation over the pounding of the water or the pounding in her head but the second she stepped out of their bathroom she knew they weren’t going to play stupid for her.

She gathered the baggy hoodie tightly around her as she sat on the errant recliner in the corner while they did their awkward little typical Hyperion dance around. It was hard for her to drag a direct answer out of them but eventually she did. Might as well kill all hope at once.

After her futile request was firmly denied they drove her home, still wearing the long, teal hoodie. She tugged on the sleeve, wondering why Rhys was so obsessed with asymmetrical pinstripes. She tried to occupy her mind debating the stupidity of Hyperion fashion in a poor attempt to not think about Gaige.

It failed. Her last moment with her first and only girlfriend was going to be looking down at her shell shocked and blood splattered face.

\---

Gaige hadn’t sat terrified in the cell for long. In less than twenty four hours she’d received an abrupt and shocking jail break. The figure stood at her door for a second before she looked up, slapping a hand over her mouth to catch the scream trying to escape her mouth.

The tall thin figure was familiar although she’d never spoke to them much. Zer0.

They weren’t paying her any mind, long thin fingers working diligently at the lock on her door. Or maybe they WERE looking at her, she could never tell.

They were quickly joined by a second, equally lanky figure. This one was actually acknowledging her though as he gestured for her to approach the door. She slid off the bed and silently approached the two.

It was a bit weird to see Mordecai all wrapped in black without his bird. He looked a lot more like his inhuman significant other with his face all covered up like that but his voice was unmistakable as she approached, “Hey. Hey chica. Gaige. Lilith sent us.”

Hands curled around the bars as she spoke back, both of them ignoring the second black figure starting to jimmy the lock more aggressively in evident frustration, “Uhm, not to sound unappreciative or anything but like… you do know my face is plastered on every screen from here to the end of the galaxy, right?”

“Yeah, well, there are places in the galaxy that don’t care,” the sniper said as his alien partner finally swung the door open with ease.

Gaige wondered how her life had managed to fuck up this hard as she was handed a pair of goggles and a bandana. She obediently put them on as she followed the two figures out of the jail. She chose to ignore the bloodied sword handle attached to Zer0’s hip as well as the streaks and splatters of blood across the walls.

How had her life devolved into violence so quickly? She supposed she’d have to get used to it. A dark part of her mind kind of liked it but she was diligently ignoring that.

She watched Mordecai ascend the wall with relative ease and nearly screamed in complete unease as Zer0 threw her over their shoulder and climbed it twice as fast as his boyfriend.

Turns out the jump down was even scarier.

It took both snipers’ effort to get her to release her metal hand’s death grip on the assassin who was flashing an irritated “>:(“ face at her.

It wasn’t long before she found herself in a warehouse, head in her hands as Lilith started quietly telling her about a planet called Pandora.

Yeah, she was never seeing Angel again.

\---

Gaige’s dad stared at the empty house next door.

Within a week of his Gaige's imprisonment Jack and his daughter had completely disappeared.

He was surprised as he stood in his daughter’s room and he suddenly looked over. Just yesterday Angel’s room had been full of stuffed animals and books and now… now it was completely empty.

He sat down on Gaige’s cold and empty bed.

Lilith had told him about Pandora. He didn’t want his daughter there.

\---

Angel didn’t really know where she was anymore.

The car ride had been long and silent. She didn’t even dare ask her father where they were going. She just knew wherever it was she certainly wasn’t going to be seeing Gaige again any time soon. Or possibly ever.

At some point in the drive she’d fallen asleep against the car window. She’d remained slumbering until she woke up in a strange new room in a strange new house. Or something.

She’d only seen her father in weeks and there was absolutely no sign of any of his assistants. He was angrier than ever though, something had happened beyond just the science fair event. Not to say he wasn’t furious because of that but there seemed to be something else happening in the background as well.

Of course, she’d had questions about them. Jack still refused to talk about Timothy and was now taking a similar stance on Rhys. She… really didn’t like that.

Eventually she saw Wilhelm again along with a rare appearance by Jack’s girlfriend, Nisha.

It wasn’t a pleasant event though.

Angel sat at the head of the table, usually reserved for Jack but today was a special occasion.

Or at least, it should have been.

Her eighteenth birthday.

She stared vacantly at the cake as Wilhelm placed it in front of her before pulling out a seat for himself at the other end of the table. Jack sat to her right with Nisha across from him, messing around with some little game on her phone.

The cowgirl looked up as her boyfriend nudged her leg under the table as a reminder that she was at a birthday party.

Angel felt like she should be wanting to cry but she just felt empty as the three adults sang an offtune rendition of “happy birthday” to her. She should have been crawling out of her window back in the suburbs, down into the waiting arms of her girlfriend.

They handed her gifts but she knew it was wrong. After escaping her house like a real life Rapunzel, she and Gaige would be running off into the sunset. Metaphorically, of course. There’d be a car involved as well as thousands of miles between her and the man currently handing her a yellow and black wrapped present.

She stared vacantly at is as an awkward silence fell across the room.

“Angel…” Jack said in a warning voice that put all but Nisha on edge, “Aren’t you going to open your gift? I got it just for you.”

It was another beat before she started weakly tearing open the package and pulling out the contents.

Tears started falling from her eyes onto the framed picture of her and Jack.

She felt only revulsion as Jack nearly knocked over Nisha so he could crush her against his chest in an awkward mockery of a concerned parent.

She shouldn’t be here, she should be with Gaige.

\---

A few days later, a few days Angel finally figured out where she was. Kind of.

She’d tried to walk around her new home but found the door locked. After a few minutes of banging on it yelling for her dad he popped up on one of the multiple monitors and explained the situation to her.

She was in a bunker in a non-specific location, behind a door that could only be unlocked by Jack’s own face.

The screen had flicked off shortly after explaining that, leaving Angel to stew in that information. Of course her father would be vain enough to make a door locked to his own appearance. Disgust pooled in her stomach, joined by spiralling depression as it became obvious she was going to be trapped here for possibly the rest of her life.

She paced the small living area for a bit. She’d been granted a living room, a dining room with a kitchen and a bedroom. That was it.

Angel gave up and laid on her back, staring at the ceiling.

She hoped that Gaige was somehow okay.


	12. Caged Birds Want to Fly Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel returns to being alone.
> 
> Some unusual figures come forward to help the rescue cause.

Gaige was getting increasingly antsy trapped in the warehouse. She had full trust in Lilith and the others to get her off the planet but she was really gunning for them to find Angel and bring her with.

The adults had gathered in one of the other rooms. None of them had really ever intended to go back to Vault Hunting but they knew, hey, when in Rome. The allure of Pandoran living could only appeal to those who had already lived it and they certainly had. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

Lilith finally brought up the elephant in the room, “How the hell are we supposed to get Angel?”

She was met only with silence.

Eventually Maya answered, “We’re not the only Vault Hunters that tried to retire here… maybe we can dig up more who’d be willing to help?”

It was a weak plan but what else did they have?

\---

Meanwhile Angel slowly resigned herself to her fate.

She really would have killed to have a window to look out of.

She spent a disturbingly high amount of time sleeping, interrupted only by her father’s presence. Not even always in person, sometimes he confined himself to the damned screens he’d placed all around her small domicile. That was even worse than nothing.

Humans aren’t meant to live in complete isolation, especially not one as sensitive as Angel. And even more especially since she’d gotten used to Gaige’s company. She wished she could dull that sensitivity. She supposed if anything could do the trick, perfect isolation would be it.

Or even just having Gaige torn away from her like this.

She buried her head in her pillow, trying to forget the redhead’s face.

\---

Lilith hadn’t liked the mysterious reply they received among the others as the tendrils reached out. The story of Gaige and Marcie had spread and Vault Hunters, even retired ones, were always opportunists. 

Thankfully, the ones who had heard were more interested in the glory of returning to Vault Hunting than the reward Mr. Halloway had put on Gaige’s head. But most were more upfront about their intentions. The dodgy e-mail telling them they had the perfect guy to help free Angel and to “not shoot” when they arrived was uncomfortable to say the least.

The red haired Siren crouched, somewhat in front of the others. The other three from her group were staring at the door intently, accompanied by the silent assassin and the other siren.

A sudden creak broke the uneasy silence as the door to the warehouse swung open.

The brief stunned silence allowed the man only time to take a few steps in, the second and third figure lurking behind him.

The gathered party immediately denied the previously mysterious request to not shoot.

What could they say? Handsome Jack has a very shootable face.

All guns were trained on the Hyperion CEO, bullets flying towards him.

They ricocheted harmlessly away though.

They could hear him screaming at them to stop shooting, a panicked tone that sounded foreign coming from the cruel man. He’d ducked behind the second figure who had stepped forward, stalwartly holding up a familiar looking shield.

The outburst of ballistics ended as quickly as it had started.

It took no time for Lilith to piece together the situation, gesturing for the others to stand down. Everyone listened, except for Zer0 who still kept their sniper rifle pointed at the approaching figures.

Jack, the real one, seemed to want to say something but didn’t. He merely kept himself crushed behind the gladiator and her girlfriend as they approached the group. Athena seemed mostly unfazed by the crosshairs that the alien had aimed so pointedly at the man behind her. However she still pulled Janey away from the firing zone.

“Jack” didn’t seem to appreciate her lack of confidence, flinching while he kept his eyes trained on the faceless sniper.

Lilith had always wondered why Jack hadn’t bothered to find a braver man to be his body double.

Although she supposed she should give Timothy some credit. She highly doubted Jack had given the man the okay to join the group trying to abduct his daughter and help her run away with her criminal girlfriend. That meant the man had ponied up enough to leave at least.

Lilith had a strong hunch it was mostly by the influence of the intimidating woman he was currently clinging to like a life raft.

\---

Another week alone.

Angel had become slowly acclimated to it, as depressing as that was. She’d considered another hunger strike but the situation had changed. She honestly was a bit concerned of dealing with a feeding tube or something even worse this time.

Her father had tried to overcompensate, insisting that she could have anything she ever wanted within these walls. Except, you know, freedom.

But you can only slap a band-aid on a wound for so long.

Or massive tubs of ice cream over crippling depression.

She was sitting in the middle of the sofa, vacantly watching some insipid drama as she shovelled in the quickly melting dessert. She didn’t even bother to turn around as she heard the door click open.

She’d been pointedly ignoring the noises she could hear outside her confinement. Gunfire wasn’t exactly unusual to hear. The place was heavily guarded and from what she could tell was ready to fire upon anything that got within shooting range. She really didn’t want to think of the implications.

A click of thick heels on tile brought her out of her apathy.

Jack wasn’t exactly prone to wearing pumps.

She remained there, frozen and almost willing to accept whatever fate was rising behind her.

The click got closer, accompanied by familiar sounds of sneakers. Two pairs.

Whirring. Lovely, lovely whirring.

The bowl of ice cream clattered to the ground, spoon skittering into the shadows as Angel found herself in a vicegrip hug. A metal arm pressing so familiarly and comfortably into her collarbone. She briefly wondered if there was a danger of rusting as tears quickly raced down her face to drip on the robotic limb as she held onto it for dear life.

Angel wasn’t given time to enjoy the moment as Gaige started twisting her around, pulling her over the back of the couch, “Come on! We have to go!”

She got a look at her other heroes then, undoubtedly the ones mostly doing the grunt work of the jailbreak. The only face she’d seen in weeks and one she’d thought she’d never see again.

She she scrambled over towards them and the door she tried to ignore the blood splattered across the edges of Athena’s shield. That became easy as she had to crouch down a bit to wrap her arms around the neck of her old guardian. She felt the woman stiffen as she always had when given even the slightest ounce of affection. However, this time she was surprised as a muscular arm latched itself around her.

Gaige was bouncing in trepidation looking from her girlfriend to the door, not wanting to ruin the reunion but wanting to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.

She thought they would achieve that when the gladiator released her but Angel turned to Other Jack. He wasn’t making eye contact. It was weird for her to see her “dad” without the mask, an arching scar marking his face and nearly healed over marks where hinges had been pried off. He jumped when he got a hug as well, surprisingly strong arms trapping him in place. He awkwardly patted her head. He looked to Athena for guidance which only prompted a corner of her mouth to almost invisibly twist up.

As she let go of her fake dad she felt metal trap her wrist, pulling her through the door as the two girls chased after the purple haired assassin. They had to slow down to wait for the doppleganger to catch up though.

It was surreal for Angel to watch him pull out his old mask and carefully tug it against his face before leaning down to the scanner. The door sprang open after greeting “Jack.”

Angel flinched as sunlight hit her eyes for the first time in over a month.

She only had a moment to look over to her girlfriend before they had to start moving. It stayed in her mind like a photograph though. Gaige’s smile even brighter than the blinding sun, copper hair positively glowing. The squeeze of metal digits as their intertwined with her own lengthy fingers. Looking into her electric green eyes like that first night that seemed to be eons ago.

Back when she was just the girl in the window.


	13. Epilogue: Nineteenth Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A year after, things are going pretty okay for the Siren and her Mechromancer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Longest fic ever finally done. I'm not sure which longfic I'll do next, there's a few in the running including another Gaigel one but I'm not sure right now which one I'll do next. \o/

A year later Angel smiled as the odd group of Vault Hunters sang to her off tune and slightly variations of ‘Happy Birthday’.

Gaige and Salvador’s versions were the loudest. Gaige’s with typical lyrics but sang at the top of her lungs to make sure it was heard. Sal’s in Truxican but just his natural volume. Which is screaming.

Lilith and Maya sang in harmony, Roland and Athena’s both solid and unwavering. Janey’s lyrics were different too, slightly cruder with bizarre words that didn’t even sound like words. Mordecai’s incredibly off tune one was contributing to the Truxican version. Timothy’s was quiet and barely audible. Rhys and Vaughn sang normal, although the latter’s voice was somewhat muffled as he was crushed against his lanky boyfriend’s chest. Zer0 seemed to be stumbling after everyone else as if they didn’t know the words.

Voices of new friends joined the old. Axton contributed to the stern military voices. Krieg screamed nonsense vaguely in the correct tune. An annoying voice chittered away, although Angel never really held Claptrap in a negative light. Two British voices seemed to be fighting for dominance, despite Aurelia and Sir Hammerlock having made a distinct point to stand at opposite ends of the crowd. Two women Angel barely knew yet had come as well, the two sisters… Fiona and Sasha she thinks? Sang a loud and offtune Pandoran version.

The redneck version was sung by two. Scooter’s loudly, proudly and offtune. Moxxi’s was trying to hide behind her fake voice but was leaking out as she approached the table. Hips swung side to side as she took the final steps, placing a massive blue and purple cake on the table in front of the girl. Maybe Angel failed not to notice the ridiculous amounts of cleavage that presentation came with.

A metal arm wrapped around Angel’s shoulder, red hair nuzzling into her cheek, “Remember! You gotta blow out all the candles or you won’t get your wish.”

“I already got my wish,” she said with a smile creeping across her face, the pointed eye contact with Gaige not going unnoticed by anyone in the room.

Her non-metal hand bapped harmlessly against her girlfriend’s arm, “Oh my god don’t do that I’ll get diabetes. Get to blowing!”

Angel obliged, taking a large breath before trying to eliminate all the flames.

She got most, nearly on the brink of passing out with one still flickering.

Everyone laughed as she raised a hand, a flash of purple extinguishing the final candle.

Angel smiled as presents began to seemingly materialize around her and her girlfriend. Most were poorly wrapped, their misshapen forms betraying their contents.

Gaige squirmed up closer to her before handing her the first gift. Odd blue wrapping paper tied up as nicely as possible with an electric green bow. She wasn’t even given a moment to open it as Gaige planted a kiss on her cheek. A second one creeping closer to her mouth. The third hitting the target.

The Siren carefully pulled at the bow, the paper falling off and exposing the gift.

Angel stared confusedly at the bolt. So did everyone else.

“Gaige?”

The redhead wasn’t surprised her cryptic gift hadn’t been obvious, “It’s the bolt I threw at your window! I don’t know what possessed me to keep it but the day after I first talked to you I hopped the fence and got it from your yard.”

Angel’s confusion turned to giddy, silly joy as she carefully lifted it now realizing the thing had been crafted into a crude necklace. As she threw it over her head she also noticed the wrapping paper wasn’t quite that. Blueprints. Specifically for failed projects, covered in energetic scribbles and the words “HI, I’M GAIGE!” scrawled across it.

Angel grabbed her girlfriend, trapping her against her chest with no chance of escape.

Nineteen was better than eighteen. She’d wished for twenty to be even better.

The metal claw gently rubbing her back seemed to promise that that birthday wish would absolutely come true.


End file.
